On Tuesday, Apple filed its first transparency report, signaling a desire to alleviate customer concerns and growing attention to privacy with regard to personal devices and services provided by the company. The data contained in the report addresses the nature of requests Apple received from law enforcement agencies via court order. According to the report, some law enforcement requests are simply meant to help a person locate a lost or stolen iPhone or when stolen phones have been discovered.
Though a gag order limits what companies can disclose regarding the details of requests for information, general information was released on data requested from January 1 to June 30, 2013. The report states, “We have reported all the information we are legally allowed to share, and Apple will continue to advocate for greater transparency about the requests we receive.” The report detailed the kind of data requests received for devices, as well as services such as iCloud and iTunes.
Apple also stated, "We have no interest in amassing personal information about our customers. We protect personal conversations by providing end-to-end encryption over iMessage and FaceTime. We do not store location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests in any identifiable form."
Personal Privacy and Government Surveillance
Public interest in personal privacy has grown since Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and NSA contractor, disclosed top secret documents which exposed surveillance performed by the United States, the British Government, and Israel. Snowden is currently living in Russia under temporary asylum and is wanted by the U.S. Government for theft of government property and espionage.
One of the NSA programs exposed by Snowden is known as PRISM, a program designed to collect online communications sent through internet search and email providers such as Google or Yahoo, and from phone companies such as Verizon. Under Section 703 of the FISA Ammendments Act of 2008, companies must disclose any data the matches search terms indicated within a court order.
Apple Founder Expresses Concern Over NSA Requests
Previously, Apple’s Steve Wozniak told the Spanish tech new site FayerWayer, "All these things they talk about in the Constitution that made us so good as people, they're kind of nothing. They all dissolved with the Patriot Act," he said in the video interview. He continued, comparing the actions to Communist Russia. "They followed their people, they snooped on them, they arrested people, put them in secret prisons - they disappeared them. We're getting more and more like that."
Towards the end of its press release, Apple stated, “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us.” Some purport that when such a statement is removed from future press releases, it is a signal to the public that an order has been received.
