Apple obtained more than the last
six months between 4,000 and 5,000 requests for the customer information from
US law enforcement authorities involving to the criminal investigations and
national security matters, the company said on Monday.
Microsoft and Facebook Inc published related information
last week after reaching a agreement concerning disclosures with US national
security authorities.
Apple said "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,"
In a announcement posted on its website Apple said
that the requests were received from December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013 and
between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were particular in those requests,
which came from federal, state and local authorities.
Source: reuters
The most usual form of appeal came from police investigating robberies and
other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to position a patient with
Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide, it said.
the company said "Apple has always placed a
priority on protecting our customers' personal data, and we don't collect or
maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first
place,"
Apple said discussion which take place over iMessage
and Face Time are "protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the
sender and receiver can observe or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that
data".
