“Apple has published the latest edition of its biannual report on Government Information Requests,” Jonny Evans writes for Apple Must. “The report covers the first six months of 2016. It confirms that governments worldwide are making more frequent requests for access to customer data, and that the US makes six times as many account requests as China.”
“Apple says account requests usually involve providing information about an account holder’s iTunes or iCloud account, such as a name and an address,” Evans writes. “‘In certain cases, we are asked to provide customers’ iCloud content, which may include stored photos, email, iOS device backups, documents, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks. We consider these requests very carefully and provide account content when the legal request is a search warrant,’ the company said in its report.”
“Apple confirms that the 1,560 accounts Chinese authorities demanded were predominantly concerned with fraud investigations. It offers no explanation for the 9,090 accounts requested by the US government,” Evans writes. “The UK government made the third biggest number of requests, 310. At least two-thirds of these requests were honored in each country, the report said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s “Report on Government Information Requests, January 1 – June 30, 2016” is here.
The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities or citizens is likely to cause endless trouble, through the rivalry of schools and creeds that are anxious to obtain official recognition, and there is great danger that our people will lose our independence of thought and action which is the cause of much of our greatness, and sink into the helplessness of the Frenchman or German who expects his government to feed him when hungry, clothe him when naked, to prescribe when his child may be born and when he may die, and, in fine, to regulate every act of humanity from the cradle to the tomb, including the manner in which he may seek future admission to paradise. ― Mark Twain
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