Despite being a very secretive company when it comes to sharing sensitive information about its products, Apple isn't so secretive when it comes to working with law enforcement in the U.S. with regards to its customers.
Apple recently published its guidelines under what terms it will work with law enforcement. What is interesting about the document is that it shows that Apple will notify its customer base, in most cases, if there is a law enforcement inquiry into them.
"Apple will notify its customers when their personal information is being sought in response to legal process except where providing notice is prohibited by the legal process itself, by a court order Apple receives (e.g., an order under 18 U.S.C. §2705(b)), or by applicable law or where Apple, in its sole discretion, believes that providing notice could create a risk of injury or death to an identifiable individual or group of individuals or in situations where the case relates to child endangerment," the company says.
Apple even has a section on the required search warrant language, which is worth a mention. This is because even devices locked with user-generated lock keys can be intercepted with Apple's help. Data can then be extracted from such devices.
"Such reasonable technical assistance consists of, to the extent possible, extracting data from the Device, copying the data from the Device onto an external hard drive or other storage medium, and returning the aforementioned storage medium to law enforcement. Law Enforcement may then perform a search of the device data on the supplied storage medium."
Another thing that is worthy of a mention related to privacy. Apple can intercept users' email communications, but only under a valid wiretap order from the govt. However, this doesn't relate to iMessage or FaceTime.
"Apple cannot intercept users' iMessage or FaceTime communications as these communications are end-to-end encrypted," the company says.
It is interesting to find out that some forms of communication are encrypted even without the aid of TOR or additional services. Despite Apple not being able to help crack iMessage or FaceTime communications, however, doesn't mean the govt. or local authorities do not have other means and methods of finding their targets.
