Apple updates its user data policy in response to spy warnings

It will now take a court order for tech giant Apple to release information on users’ push notifications, making it more challenging for law enforcement to get specific kinds of data from the company’s iPhone range.

With this policy change, Apple’s terms and conditions now match those of Google. The internet company did not openly announce the revisions, but they were visible in a recently updated list of online law enforcement rules.

The action was taken in response to Democratic Senator Ron Wyden’s warning that unidentified nations have attempted to monitor smartphone users via monitoring push notifications, which are used to alert users when they get messages or updates from apps.

For instance, government agencies or authorities could be able to use push notification data to connect anonymous messaging app users to a particular Google or Apple account. Last week, Reuters revealed, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of the process, that Apple and Google had received requests for push notification data from foreign and US government agencies.

Apple and Google both acknowledged receiving requests from authorities for access to customer data, but in their revised terms, Apple stated that information would only be shared “with a subpoena or greater legal process.”

A similar policy was already in place at Google, whose parent firm, Alphabet, makes the technology that drives Android handsets.

Both businesses are “in a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users are using particular apps,” according to Wyden, who stated as much last week. Additionally, he demanded that the Department of Justice “repeal or modify any policies” that would lessen the public’s discussion regarding push notification monitoring.

In response to Wyden’s remarks from the previous week, Apple stated that it now had a forum to talk about government surveillance thanks to the senator’s questions. The business stated, “In this instance, the federal government forbade us from sharing any information.” “We are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests now that this method has been made public.”

Wyden’s “commitment to keeping users informed about these requests” is something that Google indicated it supports. When Reuters inquired about the Department of Justice’s surveillance of push notification data and if it had stopped Apple and Google from making such requests publicly available, the DOJ remained silent.

According to Wyden, Apple was “doing the right thing” by following Google in requesting a court order before giving up user data to law enforcement.