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Apple releases numbers for government information requests in wake of PRISM

Lewis Leong

Lewis Leong

  • Updated:

god imessageFollowing the reveal that major tech companies are included in the NSA’s PRISM program, Apple has come forward to reveal just what information it reveals to the government. Apple also took time to reiterate that the company does not provide the government direct access to any of its servers. In order for data to be released, any government agency must have a court order.

In the last six months, Apple has received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for consumer information from the US government. A majority of these requests were from law enforcement agencies trying to track down thieves as well as missing persons. Apple also cites preventing suicide as a reason for handing over consumer information to the government. Apple stresses that it has a legal team to go over each request to make sure the requested information is “appropriate.” If there are inaccuracies and inconsistencies, Apple refuses to fulfill that request.

There was news earlier this week that Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage products aren’t vulnerable to NSA snooping since these services are encrypted from end-to-end. As the PRISM scandal unfolds, we expect more and more companies to provide transparency reports about what data is being given to the government and why.

[Source: Apple]

Lewis Leong

Lewis Leong

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