House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has put the British government on notice over American privacy, and the warning is blunt.
Jordan, an Ohio Republican and close ally of President Trump, wrote to UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on June 5, 2026.
His message was that Britain may be using encryption technology to reach the private data of US citizens.
This is a sovereignty fight as much as a privacy fight. A foreign government does not get a backdoor into the digital lives of Americans.
Labour may be spying on Americans, top Trump ally warns in fresh attack on Keir Starmer's Britain
— GB News (@GBNEWS) June 6, 2026
https://t.co/yH9MlB59iU
The dispute runs through the UK Investigatory Powers Act 2016 and secret orders called technical capability notices, or TCNs.
These are covert directives. Companies that receive them are barred under British law from telling anyone they exist.
GB News laid out how the system works and why it alarms American lawmakers:
In it, the Republican lawmaker raised fears that Britain may be accessing Americans’ private data.
Mr Jordan cited the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which lets the Government issue covert directives called “technical capability notices” (TCNs).
A TCN forces companies to build, maintain, or develop specific systems that allow for state surveillance, interception of communications, and access to data.
They essentially function as master keys, allowing intelligence agencies to read encrypted data without users knowing.
Mr Jordan described them as “backdoors into encrypted services” in his letter to the Home Secretary – deliberate flaws or hidden bypasses built into systems.
This gets around end-to-end encryption, which typically means only senders and recipients can view messages.
American firms are barred from telling anyone about these backdoors under British law.
ADVERTISEMENTMr Jordan had written to the Home Secretary in February complaining about a TCN being served to Apple amid concerns Britain was “weakening the security, privacy and constitutional rights of American citizens”.
But now, he has warned her most recent refusal raised broader questions about “trust and effective partnership between our two countries”.
End-to-end encryption is supposed to mean only the sender and recipient can read a message.
A backdoor breaks that promise. It lets a government agency slip past the lock that users were told would protect them.
The Gateway Pundit reported that Jordan’s letter landed amid a strained moment in the so-called special relationship between the two countries:
In the context of a grave crisis in the ‘special relationship’ between the US and the UK, a top House representative is warning the British government against ‘using sensitive backdoor technology’ to spy on Americans.
Yesterday (5), Donald J. Trump’s ally, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood alerting her about a ‘lack of security cooperation’.
Jordan warned that Britain ‘may be using encryption to gain access to US citizens’ private data’.
“[Jordan] pointed to the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, which allows the government to issue secret orders known as ‘technical capability notices’.”
ADVERTISEMENTAs the leader of the House judiciary committee, Jordan has led investigations into the activities of the FBI and US spy agencies – and now he is targeting the United Kingdom.
“The UK may be building ‘backdoors into their encrypted services’, he wrote to Ms. Mahmood.
US companies would be prohibited from informing anyone about these backdoors without the express permission of the Home Secretary.”
Jordan told Sir Christian Turner, the ambassador to the UK, that a US company who wanted to discuss a ‘technical capability notice’ with members of Congress, something that would require Mahmood’s permission.
Jordan is not treating this like a minor diplomatic paperwork dispute.
He is treating it like a foreign surveillance threat aimed at Americans who never agreed to have their data opened to another government.
Mahmood’s refusal to let a company speak with members of Congress about a notice, according to the reporting, is what pushed the issue into a broader fight over trust.
That is a polite way of saying an ally does not get to build master keys to American data and then stonewall Congress about it.
American firms caught up in these orders are gagged. They cannot warn their own customers, and they cannot warn Washington.
Jordan is the chairman with subpoena power and the standing to press it, and he is using both to defend Americans who never agreed to be surveilled by a foreign government.
