Apple on Tuesday released its first-ever transparency report, which catalogs information about world government request for user data. Like similar reports released by companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and others in light of the NSA’s surveillance activities, the report gives customers insight into the amount of times the U.S. government and other nations’ governments demand user data. But in true Apple form, the report also includes some clever language that makes this report stand out from all the others.
First, the data: Due to limitations the U.S. government places on data request transparency (because of national security concerns), Apple could only reveal the number of requests in ranges. So, for example, Apple says it received 1,000 to 2,000 requests for user data, which covered between 2,000 and 3,000 users accounts (specifically iTunes, iCloud, and Game Center user account data). Of the 1,000 to 2,000 requests, Apple says it complied with between 0 and 1,000 of these requests, for which the government needed to supply a court order. Apple says that, “Only when we are satisfied that the court order is valid and appropriate do we deliver the narrowest possible set of information responsive to the request.”
“Perhaps most important, our business does not depend on collecting personal data.”
Personal data stored by Apple could include personally identifying information (like your name), emails, photos uploaded to iCloud, and other documents you might have stored on Apple’s servers. What personal data does not include, according to Apple, is location data, Maps searches, or Siri requests, which the company says it does “not store … in a any identifiable form.”
So that’s account data requests, which involve personal information for which, Apple says, customers “have an expectation of privacy” – meaning the government can’t get that data without a proper court order, thanks to the Fourth Amendment. Apple separates account requests from device requests, which the company says it receives “when our customers ask the police to assist them with a lost or stolen iPhone, or when law enforcement has recovered a shipment of stolen devices.” In other words, device requests have little to do with giving your personal information to the NSA, and much more to do with apprehending phone and tablet thieves.
In terms of the number of device requests, Apple is able to be much more specific: The company says it received 3,542 requests for device information from law enforcement, which concerned 8,605 individual devices. Apple responded to 3,110 of this requests, or about 88 percent of them.
In addition to revealing this data, Apple also manages to take a coy swing at Google, Facebook, and any other company that makes money by collecting as much information about users as possible. “Perhaps most important,” writes Apple, “our business does not depend on collecting personal data.” Slam!
Apple has also used its transparency report as a way to subvert the NSA’s practice of slapping companies with gag orders. See, under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the government can serve court orders that let it scoop up massive amounts of data without needing to prove that the data is needed for a national security investigation. Section 215 can also be used to force companies to stay silent on whether they received data requests at all.
So, if Apple received a request under Section 215, it would be legally forbidden to tell anybody about it. But the company says explicitly in its transparency report that “Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act.” By saying it has not received any orders under Section 215 in this transparency report, Apple now has the ability to reveal if it does receive such an order simply by excluding that line from any further transparency reports – a tactic known in the legal wonk world as a “warrant canary.”
Read Apple’s full transparency report below:
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.