According to a new report from Reuters, Apple had planned to introduce end-to-end encryption for device backups on iCloud, but has backed out of the plan after backlash from the FBI.

Apple reportedly notified the government of its intention to implement this security measure more than two years ago, four current and former FBI officials and two current and former Apple employees told Reuters.

Currently, iCloud is encrypted so that only the user and Apple have keys to backups stored on the company's servers. However, allowing end-to-end encryption would eliminate the company's ability to access and restore users' backups. Government officials feared that this would hinder criminal investigations involving suspects using iPhones.

"It was legally dismissed for reasons that are not hard to imagine," one Apple employee told Reuters. The employee said the company wanted to avoid criticism by protecting criminals, having previously come under fire for failing to unlock an iPhone used by the gunman in a December 2015 shooting in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and seriously injured 22 others.

While data stored locally on iPhones and iPads is fully encrypted by default, and communications via iMessage are encrypted end-to-end as well, Apple has yet to apply the same security to backups stored in iCloud.

These backups are invaluable to investigators because they provide a complete snapshot of the device's contents at a point in time, including encrypted messaging chat logs. (Though some messaging services, like Signal, avoid iCloud altogether.)

Reuters reports that U.S. Attorney William Barr, the Saudi Arabian Air Force officer involved in the December shooting at the Pensacola, Florida naval base, was locked came a week after U.S. Attorney General William Barr reprimanded the Cupertino tech giant for failing to provide "substantial assistance" to the government in accessing two locked iPhones of the Saudi Air Force officers involved in the December shooting at the Pensacola, Florida naval base.

According to the Washington Post, Assistant Attorney General John Demers added a few days later, "I have never seen a more conducive atmosphere for passing encryption and legal access legislation here in D.C. than today."

Barr's comments may give the impression that Apple is taking the investigators' pleas right and left, but the data tells a different story.

In the first half of 2019, Apple turned over account data (including iCloud backups, but also potentially including users' personally identifiable information, photos, emails, contacts, and calendars) in 90% of requests from the US government. This equates to 3,259 out of 3,619 requests. Furthermore, 1,568 of these requests involved actual content, not just account identifiers.

Clearly, the FBI is not satisfied with the status quo. They would rather enforce and secure the cooperation of tech companies through legislation. An Apple spokesperson, in the face of Barr's accusations, told the Wall Street Journal, "Since the attack, the responses to [the government's] many requests have been timely and thorough, and are ongoing."

As it turns out, some decision makers within Apple may actually agree with the FBI's view. According to Reuters, two of the former FBI officials interviewed by the company believe that the government has provided Apple with evidence that access to suspect data, including iCloud backups, was crucial in supporting thousands of investigations.

"Because Apple was convinced," one such source told Reuters."

"Outside of the public squabble over San Bernardino, Apple is on good terms with the federal government.

Clarification: an earlier version of this article did not state that iCloud backups are now encrypted, but not end-to-end encrypted. The error has been corrected.