The Intercept is reporting that Apple tracks who its customers send iMessages to and is able to hand that information over to law enforcement when compelled to do so through a court order.
The Intercept received the document about Apple’s Messages logs as part of a larger cache originating from within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Electronic Surveillance Support Team, a state police agency that facilitates police data collection using controversial tools like the Stingray, along with conventional techniques like pen registers. The document, titled “iMessage FAQ for Law Enforcement,” is designated for “Law Enforcement Sources” and “For Official Use Only,” though it’s unclear who wrote it or for what specific audience — metadata embedded in the PDF cites an author only named “mrrodriguez.” (The term “iMessages” refers to an old name for the Messages app still commonly used to refer to it.)
Lovely. Apple claims to take a strong stance on privacy and promises to keep customer data private. This statement that they gave to the Intercept seems to reinforce that:
When law enforcement presents us with a valid subpoena or court order, we provide the requested information if it is in our possession. Because iMessage is encrypted end-to-end, we do not have access to the contents of those communications. In some cases, we are able to provide data from server logs that are generated from customers accessing certain apps on their devices. We work closely with law enforcement to help them understand what we can provide and make clear these query logs don’t contain the contents of conversations or prove that any communication actually took place.
The thing is, that this news will cast doubt on their stance on privacy. Perhaps Apple would be wise to come up with a more robust statement to clear the air on this?
Related
This entry was posted on September 29, 2016 at 9:39 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Apple Tracks Who You Contact On Messages & Stores That Info For 30 Days
The Intercept is reporting that Apple tracks who its customers send iMessages to and is able to hand that information over to law enforcement when compelled to do so through a court order.
The Intercept received the document about Apple’s Messages logs as part of a larger cache originating from within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Electronic Surveillance Support Team, a state police agency that facilitates police data collection using controversial tools like the Stingray, along with conventional techniques like pen registers. The document, titled “iMessage FAQ for Law Enforcement,” is designated for “Law Enforcement Sources” and “For Official Use Only,” though it’s unclear who wrote it or for what specific audience — metadata embedded in the PDF cites an author only named “mrrodriguez.” (The term “iMessages” refers to an old name for the Messages app still commonly used to refer to it.)
Lovely. Apple claims to take a strong stance on privacy and promises to keep customer data private. This statement that they gave to the Intercept seems to reinforce that:
When law enforcement presents us with a valid subpoena or court order, we provide the requested information if it is in our possession. Because iMessage is encrypted end-to-end, we do not have access to the contents of those communications. In some cases, we are able to provide data from server logs that are generated from customers accessing certain apps on their devices. We work closely with law enforcement to help them understand what we can provide and make clear these query logs don’t contain the contents of conversations or prove that any communication actually took place.
The thing is, that this news will cast doubt on their stance on privacy. Perhaps Apple would be wise to come up with a more robust statement to clear the air on this?
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on September 29, 2016 at 9:39 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.