macformat.com @macformatSo, if Apple refuses to bypass the
encryption of its phones, how else does it help
in the fight against crime? If you look at
Apple’s own accounts, it assists in a great
number of ways. In fact, there’s even a section
on its website where you can browse the
law-enforcement requests it has received in
almost every country around the globe (apple.
com/legal/transparency).
Let’s take a look at the most recent report
for the UK. Between January and June 2019,
Apple received a total of 1,296 government
requests for user data. In the vast majority
of these cases, Apple was able to provide data
to the government (for instance, it provided
information in 85% of the requests it received
for a person’s Apple account data). In fact,
2019 saw one of the highest rates of request
fulfilments on Apple’s part since 2013.
And just this year, Apple revealed that it
scans user photos for content depicting child
sexual abuse. Speaking at the Consumer
Electronics Show in January 2020, Apple’s
chief privacy officer Jane Horvath likened
Apple’s technique to email spam filters that
automatically look for tell-tale electronic
signatures to find suspected abuse.
This implies that Apple is far from
‘anti-police’. Apple would argue that the
security protections built into modern
iPhones exist not to thwart lawful requests
from the police, but to stop hackers and
cybercriminals from gaining access to data.
As long as police requests for information do
not jeopardise Apple’s wider community of
users, the company will comply.Is Apple’s stance justified?
Apple’s willingness to cooperate with law
enforcement in most situations tells us that
its showdowns with the FBI are not some
shallow marketing ploy designed to make
it look like it stands up for privacy when in
other areas it doesn’t care. There are other
indications that Apple’s stance goes much
deeper than simple headline-grabbing antics.
For example, iOS 13 introduced a new feature
that alerts you when your location data is
being frequently used by apps, allowing you
to revoke access if desired. According to
Digiday, this is having a major impact onThere’s a section on
the Apple website
where you can
browse its law-
enforcment requests
Digging into the data >
In 2013, Apple provided data for
65% of requests for device info
such as IMEI* and serial numbers;
in 2019, that figure was 79%.
In Europe, Germany was the
most data-hungry. It submitted
13,558 device requests in the first
half of 2019; the UK submitted 617.
Even the USA submitted fewer
(4,796). Germany also topped the
global charts for financial identifier
requests, and was first in Europe
for account requests. At 259, our
government submitted the highest
number of emergency requests in
the world (53 more than the USA).
It also submitted the most account
preservation requests in Europe at
42, although that was miles behind
the USA’s 2,476 requests.
Apple also faces requests from
bodies other than governments
(such as in legal cases).
However, of the 243
requests in the USA in
the first half of 2019, Apple
only provided user data
in 28% of cases, arguing
that many requests had
no valid legal basis or
were overly broad.Like many aspects
of Apple’s products,
features like Face ID
are designed to be both
secure and private.Apple users in the US were the subject of a huge number of
requests, although Germany outstripped it in many areas.
*IMEI – International Mobile
Equipment Identity