New polling commissioned by the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) found that 93 percent of British adults believe they have a right to private conversations online, while 89 percent think nobody should access their personal messages without a court order. Perhaps more awkwardly for Westminster, two-thirds said they would not trust either the current government or any future one with the power to access encrypted messages. That distrust crosses political lines, with 58 percent of Labour voters, 59 percent of Conservatives, 56 percent of Liberal Democrats, 69 percent of Greens and 75 percent of Reform voters expressing distrust.

Public First conducted the survey of 2,000 British adults in April, with a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. The findings land as the UK government's pursuit of encrypted data collides with the tech industry's stance that encryption works best when nobody has a spare key. Apple withdrew Advanced Data Protection from UK users after receiving a secret Technical Capability Notice (TCN) under the Investigatory Powers Act.

Just 12 percent backed the government being able to secretly order companies to provide access to users' information without disclosure. Meanwhile, 53 percent said the security risks of accessing encrypted messages outweighed the benefits. Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said: "The British public instinctively know that being able to communicate privately is crucial to our individuality and to the survival of a free and open society."