Apple Inc. on Monday revealed that it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for information within six months from the federal, state and local U.S. authorities under the secret Internet surveillance program, a few days after Facebook and Microsoft have made similar disclosures.
On its Internet site, Apple announced that U.S. authorities have issued up to 5,000 requests for user information during the period December 1st 2012 to May 31st 2013, aiming at between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts. Apple can not reveal how many requests were made under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the legal basis of the PRISM surveillance program.
“Like several other companies, we have asked the US government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency,” reads Apple statement.
Applications were mostly related to criminal investigations, search of missing children or people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, or prevent acts of suicide, said Apple. The iPhone manufacturer stated also that it is actively engaged in protecting the privacy of its users and provides information only on the basis of a court order.
“Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it,” said Apple.
Apple said that some ways of communication such as FaceTime and iMessage are protected by end-to-end encryption and can only be read by the sender and recipient.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and other Internet and technology companies are in the spotlight after the revelation last week of a vast secret program of Internet surveillance. The U.S. authorities said the program was created to watch foreign citizens suspected of terrorism and was used to countering terrorist attacks.
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