A week after a US senator alleged that governments have been ‘forcing’
Apple
and
to give details of push notifications that come to iPhones and Android smartphones, both the tech companies have gone a step further in raising the hurdle for law enforcement officials to get user data.
Apple has reportedly said law enforcement officers will now require a judge's order in case they want the companies to hand over information about its customers' push notification.
This essentially brings the iPhone maker's policy in line with rival Google.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, the change in the policy was not formally announced but it appeared sometime over the past few days on Apple's law enforcement guidelines.
What Apple’s updated policy says
“When users allow an application they have installed to receive push notifications, an Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) token is generated and registered to that developer and device. Some apps may have multiple APNs tokens for one account on one device to differentiate between messages and multimedia,” the policy notes.
Push notifications are the alerts that users receive from apps on their devices.
“The Apple ID associated with a registered APNs token and associated records may be obtained with an order under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d) or a search warrant,” notes the policy, which Apple updates as necessary.
Under this United States Code, a court order for disclosure may be issued by any court to a governmental entity that “offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation.”
Apple, Google confirm data requests
Recently, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden revealed in an open letter that officials were requesting push notification data from Apple and Google. This data travels over Google and Apple's servers. Both companies said that the US government had been “restricted from public release”, he noted.
“Apple and Google are in a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users are using particular apps. The data these two companies receive includes metadata, detailing which app received a notification and when, as well as the phone and associated Apple or Google account to which that notification was intended to be delivered,” he said in the letter.
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