Apple Now Requires Court-Order To Release Customers’ Information To Law Enforcement
Apple has said it now requires a judge’s order to hand over information about its customers push notifications to law enforcement agencies, putting the iPhone maker’s policy in line with rival Google and raising the hurdle officials must clear to get app data about users.
It follows the revelation from Oregon Senator, Ron Wyden that officials were requesting such data from Apple as well as from Google, the unit of Alphabet ( google’ listed name on the US Stoke market) that makes the operating system for Android phones.
The new policy was not formally announced but appeared a few days ago on Apple’s publicly available law enforcement guidelines.
Apps of all kinds rely on push notifications to alert smartphone users to incoming messages, breaking news, and other updates.
These are the audible “dings” or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or their sports team wins a game. What users often do not realize is that almost all such notifications travel over Google and Apple’s servers.
In a letter first disclosed last week, Wyden said the practice gave the two companies unique insight into traffic flowing from those apps to users, putting them “in a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users are using particular apps.”
Apple and Google both acknowledged receiving such requests. Apple added a passage to its guidelines saying such data was available “with a subpoena or greater legal process.” The passage has now been updated to refer to more stringent warrant requirements.
Wyden said in a statement that Apple was “doing the right thing by matching Google and requiring a court order to hand over push notification-related data.”
