Apple Sharing iMessage Data with Law Enforcement
Apple's reputation with the privacy-minded crowd rose sky-high as it fought tooth and nail to prevent a government backdoor into its iOS devices. But according to a new report, and Apple's own follow-up statement, the company is reportedly allowing law enforcement to see metadata connected to text message conversations.
Credit: guteksk7 / Shutterstock
According to a report from The Intercept yesterday (Sept. 28), Apple logs and stores phone numbers, email addresses, and IP addresses of your contacts each and every time you enter a number into your iPhone to start a text conversation.
While Apple's messaging app has to perform some checks to decide whether the texts need to be sent over its iMessage platform or the SMS standard, it retains these logs for a span of 30 days, and Apple will turn that information over to law enforcement if it receives a court order..
MORE: 10 Best Messaging Apps
We should note that Apple isn't collecting records of who you text and for how long, only the numbers or email addresses you type into the messaging application. This clearly leaves room for error, as you could accidentally type an incorrect number into the app and it would be sent to Apple's servers.
Also, Apple isn't just handing that data over freely; such a hand-off requires a court order explaining that government lawyers believe they are "likely" to gain information that is "relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation."
This information was found in a cache of documents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Electronic Surveillance Support Team, which uses a variety of devices, including the controversial Stingray data-logger. In a document entitled "iMessage FAQ for Law Enforcement," it is explained that a court order for information on an iMessage account can gain this information, including the dates and times of when a recipient is entered.
Apple provided the following statement to The Intercept, which admits to the sharing of data:
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.
If this news makes you wary of using iMessage, you could check out Signal, the most secure messaging option on iOS devices.
See also : Best Encrypted Messaging Apps
