U.S. officials are examining whether the UK broke a bilateral agreement by reportedly demanding that Apple build a "backdoor" allowing the British government to access backups of data in the company's encrypted cloud storage systems.

Apple disabled its most secure data storage offering for new customers in the United Kingdom rather than comply with a secret government order.

Company wants to discourage other governments from using the same tactics; the appeal also likely objects to Apple being singled out for this requirement, analysts said.

Reason reported on the United Kingdom's demand for access to any Apple user's digital information stored in its cloud storage service, iCloud. Since those data are end-to-end encrypted by default, this would require the tech giant to create an intentional vulnerability in its security protocols—the likes of which could be exploited by

Apple is challenging a UK government order that would force the company to provide access to its customers' encrypted data when needed. According to BBC, the tech giant has appealed to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal,