In the wake of the PRISM scandal, Apple has issued a public statement detailing the extent of US government data requests. In the statement, it repeats that it does not provide any agency with direct access to its servers,
noting that all requests for customer data need to be backed by a court
order. In an effort to be transparent, the Cupertino-based manufacturer
revealed the number of data requests it received in the six month
period ending May 31st.
The most common requests have nothing to do with national security
Apple received "between 4,000
and 5,000 requests" relating to "between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or
devices" from federal, state, and local authorities. These requests
related to both criminal investigations and national security matters,
but the most common were regarding "robberies and other crimes,
searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with
Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide."
Apple can't decrypt iMessage and FaceTime data
Noting that it "work[s] hard to
strike the right balance" between obeying the law and protecting
privacy, Apple goes on to reiterate past statements, noting that its
legal team evaluates each request individually and only gives the
"narrowest possible set of information to the authorities." It also
notes that it has refused to fulfill requests for "certain categories of
information," and says it can't decrypt iMessage and FaceTime data, as
it's encrypted end-to-end. iMessage made news back in April when a
leaked DEA memo noted that iMessage encryption was uncrackable. Finally, it says it does not store user data on location, Map searches or Siri requests "in any identifiable form."
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