“Apple this week announced it will be launching by the end of 2018 a dedicated web portal for authenticated law enforcement officers to submit lawful requests for data, track requests, and obtain responsive data from the company,” Joe Rossignol reports for MacRumors.
“Apple also said it is building a team of professionals dedicated to training law enforcement officers, which the company believes will improve its ability to reach smaller police forces and agencies around the world,” Rossignol reports. “This will include the development of an online training module for officers. The web portal will be available globally as part of Apple’s new Law Enforcement Support Program, which the company detailed on the Government Information Requests page of its privacy website this week.”
“Apple requires law enforcement and government officials to follow applicable laws when requesting customer information and data. If they do, Apple complies by providing the narrowest possible set of data relevant to the request. That information can include device identifiers, customer service records, and iCloud content such as emails, stored photos, documents, contacts, calendars, bookmarks, Safari browsing history, Apple Maps search history, iMessages backups, and iOS device backups, according to Apple’s guidelines,” Rossignol reports. “Where and when legally required, Apple may also provide basic customer information such as name, physical address, email address, phone number, and IP address, along with customer service records and Find My iPhone logs. Apple ensures that it has never created a backdoor or master key to any of its products or services, and never will.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Rossignol notes in a followup that “Apple is launching these initiatives in response to a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies on the cybersecurity challenges and digital evidence needs of U.S. law enforcement agencies.”
Apple’s statement via the company’s Privacy webpage:
We believe that law enforcement agencies play a critical role in keeping our society safe and we’ve always maintained that if we have information we will make it available when presented with valid legal process. In recognizing the ongoing digital evidence needs of law enforcement agencies, we have a team of dedicated professionals within our legal department who manage and respond to all legal requests received from law enforcement agencies globally. Our team also responds to emergency requests globally on a 24/7 basis.
We publish legal process guidelines for government and law enforcement agencies globally and we publish transparency reports twice a year detailing the types of requests we receive and how we respond. In addition, we regularly provide training to law enforcement officers on the types of data available from Apple and how to obtain it consistent with our legal process guidelines.
By the end of 2018 we will begin the launch of an online portal for authenticated law enforcement officers globally to submit lawful requests for data, track requests, and obtain responsive data from Apple.
We are building a team of professionals dedicated to training law enforcement officers globally, which will significantly increase our ability to reach smaller police forces and agencies. This will include the development of an online training module for officers. This will assist Apple in training a larger number of law enforcement agencies and officers globally, and ensure that our company’s information and guidance can be updated to reflect the rapidly changing data landscape.
Apple is committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users. The above developments and the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment. — Apple Inc.
SEE ALSO:
Why you might not want to enable Apple’s new Messages in iCloud – May 30, 2018
iCloud changes put Apple on collision course with overreaching governments – July 20, 2017
Now Apple is going to stop the U.S. government from getting into iCloud data, too – March 28, 2016
This is a very difficult tightrope to walk, but Apple seems to be doing it better than anybody else.
Good luck it will never be enough….
That’s right. The voracious and acquisitive US Police Spy State is never satisfied; It was designed that way by both political parties in the US Congress.
So if my devices generate the encryption keys and everything on iCloud except Mail is encrypted… How can they give stored photos, documents, contacts, calendars to anyone?
Tim Cook probably made the best deal he could, but his days are numbered.
I suspect his successor will not have the same commitment to keeping the snoops out of our devices.
The successor may be somebody who never even knew Steve Jobs.
The search for the next CEO of Apple will be monitored by the FBI, CIA, NSA.
Bad news for you conspiracy theorists. Twitter has now permanently banned Alex Jones. Did anybody see him confronting Senator Rubio yesterday? Even for Crazytown, it was quite a performance.
Proposing that Apple’s next CEO will, in effect, be picked by the American intelligence agencies is a conspiracy theory.
@ TxUser
Do you even read the comments before you attack?
Never said anything about the CEO of Apple being picked by American intelligence.
To suggest that, however, would not be a theory or a conspiracy theory. It would be called speculation.
Looks like YOU have a conspiratorial mind, however.
That’s kind of ironic.
Proposing that U.S. intelligence agencies don’t regularly and extensively interfere with tech companies (especially communications-related devices and systems) is a sign that you don’t actually read the news.
Nobody has heretofore written anything of a conspiratorial nature, or theorized about conspiracies. Nobody so far has expressed a belief in any conspiracy.
Please try to use the term “conspiracy theorist” properly.You will appear more intelligent than you probably are.