A London court hearing, reported to be Apple's appeal against a British government order to create a "back door" to its encrypted cloud storage systems, was held in secret on Friday, with media not allowed to attend despite a formal request.

U.K. rights groups have asked a British court to open a hearing Friday on Apple’s bid to avoid building spy capability into its encrypted cloud storage.

A group of bipartisan U.S. lawmakers are urging the head of the U.K.’s surveillance court to hold an open hearing into Apple’s anticipated challenge of an alleged secret U.K. government legal demand.