11 ms·

Transparency Report

199 points by bhaile 6y ago

marricks 6y ago
This is the USA's information[1], it's interesting to see the number of account requests increased from ~5k to almost ~8k accounts, and this is for 2019. Given the mass protects and how much phone live streaming was involved NEXT years report will be truly revealing. It's possible it wont jump all that much as when arrested many protestors had their phones at least temporarily siezed, and the Grayshift[2] boxes law enforcement have probably don't need Apple's involvement. [1] https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayshift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayshift
- cybralx 6y ago
  There are other tools available as well to collect 'cloud' data. Such as Magnet AXIOM Cloud[1] and Cellebrite UFED Cloud[2]. These still require legal process in most cases. [1] https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-axiom/cloud/ https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-axiom/cloud/ [2] https://www.cellebrite.com/en/ufed-cloud/ https://www.cellebrite.com/en/ufed-cloud/
- Pryde 6y ago
  Is there anywhere you know of with more details regarding those Grayshift boxes, or do we not publicly know much about them?
  - thewebcount 6y ago
    I don't know anything about Grayshift boxes, but you can pair-lock your iPhone so it can't be accessed by devices that connect to it physically.[0] Note that there are some downsides like not being able to restore from a backup from a date before you pair-locked the device, and only being able to backup and restore from that device. (Better hope it never dies!) But if you've got a burner phone you don't want authorities to be able to get into (unless they take the device it's locked to, as well), it's a workable solution. [0]https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=2589 https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=2589
- sneak 6y ago
  See also: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/new-report-on-police-decryption-capabilities.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/new-report-on... > Based on 110 public records requests to state and local law enforcement agencies across the country, our research documents more than 2,000 agencies that have purchased these tools, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We found that state and local law enforcement agencies have performed hundreds of thousands of cellphone extractions since 2015, often without a warrant.
  - marricks 6y ago
    Oh cool, that's way worse than I thought it'd be in 2015. No doubt it's gotten way worse since then.
- _jal 6y ago
  This is why I am, for once, glad for the massive ewaste disaster that is old cell phones. They are perfect for protests. If you are not coordinating or worried about realtime Twitter, but instead documenting, you don't even need a cheapo prepaid SIM. Wipe them first, and don't leave them anything other than pictures of their own abusive behavior for them to find, unless you'd also like to gift them a copy of the Constitution or perhaps some personal musings on the role of policing in modern culture.
  - AnthonyMouse 6y ago
    You don't actually need the ewaste disaster to have cheap old cellphones. You can get a 64-bit PC on eBay shipped to you for <$50. 10+ years old but will still run the latest Windows or Linux. If phones worked like this, people would keep them for many more years, but there would still be more than enough 10+ year old phones available for a close approximation to the shipping cost. It would also mean that the older phones would go to poor countries that could still use them instead of being slag, because "slow but runs current software" is usable whereas "not even old enough to be slow but can't run current software" means you can't use the thing because websites will throw certificate errors from missing roots, apps won't run on it and it will be full of known vulnerabilities and get malware.
  - Thorrez 6y ago
    Why are old phones better than new ones? Is it simply because they're cheaper?
pkage 6y ago
For comparison, here is Google's transparency report: https://transparencyreport.google.com/?hl=en https://transparencyreport.google.com/?hl=en Comparing US results it seems like Apple has served ~4x fewer requests vs. Google (10197 for Apple and 38042 for Google) in a six month period.
- dheera 6y ago
  > Device requests are based on device identifiers such as Apple serial number, IMEI or MEID. At least for the device part, if you use an open source OS like LineageOS, you can fake all of these things so that it's not even a question. One of the biggest privacy disadvantages of iOS is that Apple maintains total control over the system and therefore they can be compelled by governments to serve these requests, whereas on my "Google" phone I can actually prevent Google from being able to serve them. Sure, the default OS Google supplies may track the hell out of you, but at least you have the option to load your own OS onto the device. I find it extremely annoying that Apple continues to play the "we're the good guys" card while there is absolutely no data on how Apple themselves track and use your personal data. I would much prefer the system itself were designed such that you have the ability to restrict data collection from even Apple themselves, and that there is clear proof of that fact.
  - oneplane 6y ago
    That argument is getting old. Yes, you could do those things, but can you do that for billions of people? Going back to the "you don't own your computer"-post from yesterday (or the day before?): it's not simply a matter of 'the big bar corp did it', users that do not or cannot understand technology to a degree that they can also control it generally don't have this choice at all. And for people that do have that choice, you also have to choose the ecosystem (be it social or technical). Plenty of people seem to stay on facebook for the same reason. It's not because it's good, it's because that's where the critical mass is.
    - dheera 6y ago
      Yes, you can. At some point regulation does need to step in and keep corporations in check. You probably buy food from a restaurant or food ingredients from a grocery store. You don't have to buy food -- you can grow it or hunt it yourself. But there are laws around food labels for a reason.
ksec 6y ago
"Government and private entities are required to follow applicable laws and statutes when requesting customer information and data from Apple." A Transparency Report is still no substitute to Encrypted backup [1] because it made the assumption that every country 's law enforcement system are just. If Apple cant provide encrypted backup due to pressure from Government, an iOS Time Capsule would surely be a great product. But that would go against the goal of increasing its Services Revenue from iCloud. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive-idUSKBN1ZK1CT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
- gruez 6y ago
  >an iOS Time Capsule would surely be a great product or just use itunes backup?
  - thewebcount 6y ago
    Yeah, I do this for a variety of reasons. If Apple doesn't have my backup, they can't give it to anyone and nobody can steal it from them. It's slightly inconvenient if I have to replace a phone while traveling, but honestly, that's never happened to me, and with a global pandemic, it's not an issue at the moment.
  - cmsimike 6y ago
    It would be much nicer if I can just backup my iPhone to my nas (which I use for my Mac's Time Machine target) which is always online and available over a vpn rather than have to pull out my mbp to do a backup.
JoshTko 6y ago
Germany seems to lead in terms of requests/population by a longshot.
- totalZero 6y ago
  Assuming the data is available, we should prefer to normalize by # of active customers rather than population. The average German consumer is more likely to buy an Apple device than, say, the average Mexican consumer.
  - tpush 6y ago
    Germany has 17x the number of device requests of France while having a similar population count and iPhone usage.
- Asmod4n 6y ago
  Not surprising. Our Agency to protect Computers and such will also soonish be forced to buy or code 0-days for iPhone et al data extraction.
- occamrazor 6y ago
  In the country report Apple explains that the high number of device requests is due to investigation of stolen devices.
  - Zak 6y ago
    That's a bit surprising given Germany's overall low crime rate. I wonder if one of these is true: * German police put an unusual level of effort into locating stolen devices * Many mobile devices stolen in other countries end up in Germany * Germany has a high rate of phone theft despite low crime overall
    - IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
      It's almost certainly the first. Or, more specifically, not "an unusual level of effort", but having a system and/or just deciding to include such requests as standard procedure for thefts. I'm somewhat surprised, tbh, as I was under the impression that petty theft just isn't actively investigated because it's neither much of a problem, nor economical to do so.
sneak 6y ago
It's astounding that a supposedly free country won't even allow Apple to tell us how many illegal and unconstitutional warrantless data seizures the US government has compelled them to comply with. Abridging the 4th amendment rights of users wasn't enough: they had to abridge Apple's 1st amendment rights to even say how many times it happened. These are the people who voted to suspend the constitution and due process in the USA: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s12 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s12
- chungus_khan 6y ago
  The US constitution has a very long history of being selectively enforced whenever it is convenient for those in power, be it on issues of civil rights, the HUAC, various CIA and FBI programs exposed in the 70s, mass surveillance and "national security", etc. It needs to stop, but those in power seldom want their own powers curtailed.
- goodluckchuck 6y ago
  > Abridging the 4th amendment rights of users wasn't enough: they had to abridge Apple's 1st amendment rights to even say how many times it happened. The other (potentially more important side) of Apple's 1st amendment rights to speak are the subjects' and everyone else's 1st amendment rights to hear / receive information. In telling Apple that they cannot reveal the identity of these requests, they are saying that I am not allowed to learn whether I was subjected to ones of these searches. Without being allowed to know, I cannot challenge the search, etc. The same contra-positive-analysis is helpful with claims of "foreign interference" in elections, where I may have little concern for a foreign adversary's right to speak, but also take serious issue with the idea that I should not be allowed to learn about matters that may be important to and relevant to my vote.
ProAm 6y ago
Are these reports worth much in the US with NSL's? Its nice but I always assume its half the picture.
- johncolanduoni 6y ago
  They include the NSL breakdown and point to the relevant reporting restrictions they’re working under (6 month delays and having to report most numbers in brackets of 500).
  - ProAm 6y ago
    Interesting, when did they start being allowed to admit they even receive a NSL request. I thought that was part of not being able to challenge them in court is that you were not allowed to challenge something you 'never received'.
    - johncolanduoni 6y ago
      Yeah I was surprised too but apparently the 2015 renewal of the Patriot Act established some reporting allowances. I guess it makes sense the government doesn’t really care about aggregate reporting like this, it doesn’t really help companies fight individual acts of overreach to say “we received more NSLs than 1000 but less than 1500”.
- rsync 6y ago
  FWIW, some firms still run warrant canaries ...
  - IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
    Yes, like, for example, Apple. The US page details the law that governs disclosure, and how it only allows them to report ranges.
    - rsync 6y ago
      I wouldn't consider that a warrant canary.
pcbro141 6y ago
Canada: 24 device requests Canada Population: 37M Australia: 1694 device requests (~70x) Australia Population: 25M Why such a big difference between both of these safe countries? The crime rates are pretty similar, Australia definitely doesn't have 70x more crime than Canada, and there aren't simply way more iPhones in Australia. Very different police/prosecuting strategies I guess.
- oneplane 6y ago
  The varying strategies (and their varying results -- even when applying the same strategy but in a different location) is rather surprising to me, especially when you dig around a little and find that plenty of places don't re-think their strategy for decades while the results remain 'meh' at best. Maybe this works well for Australia, or they are stuck in 1990 and simply haven't looked back and wondered if anything could be done differently. Example would be: instead of catching everything you see, you can also collect information until you find a pattern, central driver or societal problem and solve that to solve the underlying problem. The counter-example would then be: instead of always trying to catch the biggest fish you can also make a few examples and disturb something like a criminal network by messing up the actions of their foot soldiers. I suspect the way you go about it increases or decreases the amount of individual requests you need in order to execute your mandate.
  - sbeller 6y ago
    > places don't re-think their strategy for decades because it is hard to measure the effectiveness. How many terrorist attacks and domestic incidents are there (assuming in good faith those are the only things to be prevented) ? I would assume in the absence of any of these national security agencies that there were only very few per year if not decade. That makes it hard to adjust the strategy even if you assume that they are totally focused on security only, and not e.g. on the continued presence of their paycheck of suppression of opposition parties. To give you an example: the (American) security measures at the airport that were introduced in 2001 can be considered a total success, as there has been no incidence since then (success = good, people can get promoted for that[0]), although these measures have been called security theater at times[1]. And with these measures called successful by those promoted people, why change them? Of course some other people opine that they may not be as successful as they claim they are [2], but it is still hard to quantify. > instead of catching everything you see, you can also collect information until you find a pattern yeah that seems likely. Though this scares me personally as I may demonstrate a pattern now that will make me a suspect in the future, despite doing nothing wrong. [0] I worked at big tech once upon a time [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/tsa-business-security-theater-not-security/357599/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/tsa-bus... [2] https://www.thelocal.de/20091231/24279 https://www.thelocal.de/20091231/24279
ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I think it's interesting the UK's "emergency" requests list is so high relative to the overall requests made: Either the UK marks nearly all their data requests as emergencies, or are only requesting data in the case of an emergency.
pier25 6y ago
Considering this is Apple, I'm surprised how bad the UX of the cards+slider is. At least on desktop the country cards have a delayed animation and feels super unresponsive.
- reillyse 6y ago
  On an iPhone it took me a hell of a long time to swipe over to the US, we are talking minutes with all the miss swipes which accidentally forwarded me to other pages etc. for such a UI/UX focused company that seems fishy
  - sdmw 6y ago
    Surprisingly it only takes a second on Droid.. But it wouldn't surprise me that they intentionally did it this way in order to discourage people to scroll to the numbers that hurt the most. https://imgur.com/a/ZJHc70U https://imgur.com/a/ZJHc70U
    - sqldba 6y ago
      That’s a really ameri-centric way of looking at things. “Only the US numbers hurt [because I’m in the US and only US people matter].
- sagz 6y ago
  The narrative that Apple is the bastion of good UX has sailed quite a while ago given their regressions with MacOS 10.14-10.15 bugs, iOS 13 bugs requiring major reOrgs, iPhone Battery-oriented CPU throttling with no user affordance, etc. Also their web design has been accessibility-hostile often enough with the landing pages of Trashcan Mac Pro, iPhone 12 etc all taking over your scroll…
dgellow 6y ago
What is happening with Germany?! 13761 devices?!
- rbinv 6y ago
  "High volume of device requests predominantly due to stolen device investigations": https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/de.html https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/de.html
darth_avocado 6y ago
Mainland China has less requests than USA? o.O
- strictnein 6y ago
  There are a lot more Apple devices in the US than in China. edit: Some data: US: 15 million iPhones in Q2 2020 [0] China: ~3 million in 2019 total [1] [0] https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/sales-us-coronavirus-3794157/ https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/sales-us-coronavirus-3794157... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/apple-stock-hits-new-all-time-high-on-china-iphone-sales-data.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/apple-stock-hits-new-all-tim...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
lettergram 6y ago
Interesting, the number of FISA warrants have been growing exponentially since 2014.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
  There aren't even any FISA warrants listed before 2018, and since then the ranges being given change very little?
judge2020 6y ago
For context, the US page[0] lists the primary types of requests they get: > Device: High number of devices specified in requests predominantly due to return and repair fraud investigations. > Financial Identifier: High number of financial identifier requests predominantly due to iTunes Gift Card and credit card fraud investigations. > Account Requests: High number of accounts specified in requests predominantly due to fraud and cyber intrusion investigations and a third party app related investigation. I wonder what "a third party app related investigation" is about. 0: https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html#twocolgreytbl-c7b7253a817c00fdf9995e6f24efaf85-heading:~:text=Matters%20of%20Note https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html#twocolgreyt...
miguelmota 6y ago
They should sort the list by most government requests instead of alphabetically and in table format instead of that terrible horizontal slider.
- santiagobasulto 6y ago
  You’re so right. I’m on mobile. Terrible UX.
- rowellx68 6y ago
  It took me a while to figure out how to display another country/region on mobile! Sheesh
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
  They do link to CSV files though, which is nice. I'll take a shiny website and a linked .csv over a table-of-links to PDF files any day.
baby 6y ago
Lots of requests in France lately, I'm guessing due to the terrorist threats.
transitivebs 6y ago
Awwww shucks I was really hoping that Apple was announcing a transparent iphone.
tehwebguy 6y ago
Am I doing the math right on the seemingly huge increase in FISA / NSL requests? 2014: ~739 # Requests 2015: ~2,498 2016: ~8,998 2017: ~29,748 2018: ~49,494 # Users, display data changed this year 2019: ~68,994

199 points by bhaile 6y ago

This is the USA's information[1], it's interesting to see the number of account requests increased from ~5k to almost ~8k accounts, and this is for 2019. Given the mass protects and how much phone live streaming was involved NEXT years report will be truly revealing. It's possible it wont jump all that much as when arrested many protestors had their phones at least temporarily siezed, and the Grayshift[2] boxes law enforcement have probably don't need Apple's involvement. [1] https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayshift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grayshift

cybralx 6y ago
There are other tools available as well to collect 'cloud' data. Such as Magnet AXIOM Cloud[1] and Cellebrite UFED Cloud[2]. These still require legal process in most cases. [1] https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-axiom/cloud/ https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-axiom/cloud/ [2] https://www.cellebrite.com/en/ufed-cloud/ https://www.cellebrite.com/en/ufed-cloud/
Pryde 6y ago
Is there anywhere you know of with more details regarding those Grayshift boxes, or do we not publicly know much about them?
- thewebcount 6y ago
  I don't know anything about Grayshift boxes, but you can pair-lock your iPhone so it can't be accessed by devices that connect to it physically.[0] Note that there are some downsides like not being able to restore from a backup from a date before you pair-locked the device, and only being able to backup and restore from that device. (Better hope it never dies!) But if you've got a burner phone you don't want authorities to be able to get into (unless they take the device it's locked to, as well), it's a workable solution. [0]https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=2589 https://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=2589
sneak 6y ago
See also: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/new-report-on-police-decryption-capabilities.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/new-report-on... > Based on 110 public records requests to state and local law enforcement agencies across the country, our research documents more than 2,000 agencies that have purchased these tools, in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We found that state and local law enforcement agencies have performed hundreds of thousands of cellphone extractions since 2015, often without a warrant.
- marricks 6y ago
  Oh cool, that's way worse than I thought it'd be in 2015. No doubt it's gotten way worse since then.
_jal 6y ago
This is why I am, for once, glad for the massive ewaste disaster that is old cell phones. They are perfect for protests. If you are not coordinating or worried about realtime Twitter, but instead documenting, you don't even need a cheapo prepaid SIM. Wipe them first, and don't leave them anything other than pictures of their own abusive behavior for them to find, unless you'd also like to gift them a copy of the Constitution or perhaps some personal musings on the role of policing in modern culture.
- AnthonyMouse 6y ago
  You don't actually need the ewaste disaster to have cheap old cellphones. You can get a 64-bit PC on eBay shipped to you for <$50. 10+ years old but will still run the latest Windows or Linux. If phones worked like this, people would keep them for many more years, but there would still be more than enough 10+ year old phones available for a close approximation to the shipping cost. It would also mean that the older phones would go to poor countries that could still use them instead of being slag, because "slow but runs current software" is usable whereas "not even old enough to be slow but can't run current software" means you can't use the thing because websites will throw certificate errors from missing roots, apps won't run on it and it will be full of known vulnerabilities and get malware.
- Thorrez 6y ago
  Why are old phones better than new ones? Is it simply because they're cheaper?

pkage 6y ago

For comparison, here is Google's transparency report: https://transparencyreport.google.com/?hl=en https://transparencyreport.google.com/?hl=en Comparing US results it seems like Apple has served ~4x fewer requests vs. Google (10197 for Apple and 38042 for Google) in a six month period.

dheera 6y ago
> Device requests are based on device identifiers such as Apple serial number, IMEI or MEID. At least for the device part, if you use an open source OS like LineageOS, you can fake all of these things so that it's not even a question. One of the biggest privacy disadvantages of iOS is that Apple maintains total control over the system and therefore they can be compelled by governments to serve these requests, whereas on my "Google" phone I can actually prevent Google from being able to serve them. Sure, the default OS Google supplies may track the hell out of you, but at least you have the option to load your own OS onto the device. I find it extremely annoying that Apple continues to play the "we're the good guys" card while there is absolutely no data on how Apple themselves track and use your personal data. I would much prefer the system itself were designed such that you have the ability to restrict data collection from even Apple themselves, and that there is clear proof of that fact.
- oneplane 6y ago
  That argument is getting old. Yes, you could do those things, but can you do that for billions of people? Going back to the "you don't own your computer"-post from yesterday (or the day before?): it's not simply a matter of 'the big bar corp did it', users that do not or cannot understand technology to a degree that they can also control it generally don't have this choice at all. And for people that do have that choice, you also have to choose the ecosystem (be it social or technical). Plenty of people seem to stay on facebook for the same reason. It's not because it's good, it's because that's where the critical mass is.
  - dheera 6y ago
    Yes, you can. At some point regulation does need to step in and keep corporations in check. You probably buy food from a restaurant or food ingredients from a grocery store. You don't have to buy food -- you can grow it or hunt it yourself. But there are laws around food labels for a reason.

ksec 6y ago

"Government and private entities are required to follow applicable laws and statutes when requesting customer information and data from Apple." A Transparency Report is still no substitute to Encrypted backup [1] because it made the assumption that every country 's law enforcement system are just. If Apple cant provide encrypted backup due to pressure from Government, an iOS Time Capsule would surely be a great product. But that would go against the goal of increasing its Services Revenue from iCloud. [1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive-idUSKBN1ZK1CT https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...

gruez 6y ago
>an iOS Time Capsule would surely be a great product or just use itunes backup?
- thewebcount 6y ago
  Yeah, I do this for a variety of reasons. If Apple doesn't have my backup, they can't give it to anyone and nobody can steal it from them. It's slightly inconvenient if I have to replace a phone while traveling, but honestly, that's never happened to me, and with a global pandemic, it's not an issue at the moment.
- cmsimike 6y ago
  It would be much nicer if I can just backup my iPhone to my nas (which I use for my Mac's Time Machine target) which is always online and available over a vpn rather than have to pull out my mbp to do a backup.

JoshTko 6y ago

Germany seems to lead in terms of requests/population by a longshot.

totalZero 6y ago
Assuming the data is available, we should prefer to normalize by # of active customers rather than population. The average German consumer is more likely to buy an Apple device than, say, the average Mexican consumer.
- tpush 6y ago
  Germany has 17x the number of device requests of France while having a similar population count and iPhone usage.
Asmod4n 6y ago
Not surprising. Our Agency to protect Computers and such will also soonish be forced to buy or code 0-days for iPhone et al data extraction.
occamrazor 6y ago
In the country report Apple explains that the high number of device requests is due to investigation of stolen devices.
- Zak 6y ago
  That's a bit surprising given Germany's overall low crime rate. I wonder if one of these is true: * German police put an unusual level of effort into locating stolen devices * Many mobile devices stolen in other countries end up in Germany * Germany has a high rate of phone theft despite low crime overall
  - IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
    It's almost certainly the first. Or, more specifically, not "an unusual level of effort", but having a system and/or just deciding to include such requests as standard procedure for thefts. I'm somewhat surprised, tbh, as I was under the impression that petty theft just isn't actively investigated because it's neither much of a problem, nor economical to do so.

sneak 6y ago

It's astounding that a supposedly free country won't even allow Apple to tell us how many illegal and unconstitutional warrantless data seizures the US government has compelled them to comply with. Abridging the 4th amendment rights of users wasn't enough: they had to abridge Apple's 1st amendment rights to even say how many times it happened. These are the people who voted to suspend the constitution and due process in the USA: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s12 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/115-2018/s12

chungus_khan 6y ago
The US constitution has a very long history of being selectively enforced whenever it is convenient for those in power, be it on issues of civil rights, the HUAC, various CIA and FBI programs exposed in the 70s, mass surveillance and "national security", etc. It needs to stop, but those in power seldom want their own powers curtailed.
goodluckchuck 6y ago
> Abridging the 4th amendment rights of users wasn't enough: they had to abridge Apple's 1st amendment rights to even say how many times it happened. The other (potentially more important side) of Apple's 1st amendment rights to speak are the subjects' and everyone else's 1st amendment rights to hear / receive information. In telling Apple that they cannot reveal the identity of these requests, they are saying that I am not allowed to learn whether I was subjected to ones of these searches. Without being allowed to know, I cannot challenge the search, etc. The same contra-positive-analysis is helpful with claims of "foreign interference" in elections, where I may have little concern for a foreign adversary's right to speak, but also take serious issue with the idea that I should not be allowed to learn about matters that may be important to and relevant to my vote.

ProAm 6y ago

Are these reports worth much in the US with NSL's? Its nice but I always assume its half the picture.

johncolanduoni 6y ago
They include the NSL breakdown and point to the relevant reporting restrictions they’re working under (6 month delays and having to report most numbers in brackets of 500).
- ProAm 6y ago
  Interesting, when did they start being allowed to admit they even receive a NSL request. I thought that was part of not being able to challenge them in court is that you were not allowed to challenge something you 'never received'.
  - johncolanduoni 6y ago
    Yeah I was surprised too but apparently the 2015 renewal of the Patriot Act established some reporting allowances. I guess it makes sense the government doesn’t really care about aggregate reporting like this, it doesn’t really help companies fight individual acts of overreach to say “we received more NSLs than 1000 but less than 1500”.
rsync 6y ago
FWIW, some firms still run warrant canaries ...
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
  Yes, like, for example, Apple. The US page details the law that governs disclosure, and how it only allows them to report ranges.
  - rsync 6y ago
    I wouldn't consider that a warrant canary.

pcbro141 6y ago

Canada: 24 device requests Canada Population: 37M Australia: 1694 device requests (~70x) Australia Population: 25M Why such a big difference between both of these safe countries? The crime rates are pretty similar, Australia definitely doesn't have 70x more crime than Canada, and there aren't simply way more iPhones in Australia. Very different police/prosecuting strategies I guess.

oneplane 6y ago
The varying strategies (and their varying results -- even when applying the same strategy but in a different location) is rather surprising to me, especially when you dig around a little and find that plenty of places don't re-think their strategy for decades while the results remain 'meh' at best. Maybe this works well for Australia, or they are stuck in 1990 and simply haven't looked back and wondered if anything could be done differently. Example would be: instead of catching everything you see, you can also collect information until you find a pattern, central driver or societal problem and solve that to solve the underlying problem. The counter-example would then be: instead of always trying to catch the biggest fish you can also make a few examples and disturb something like a criminal network by messing up the actions of their foot soldiers. I suspect the way you go about it increases or decreases the amount of individual requests you need in order to execute your mandate.
- sbeller 6y ago
  > places don't re-think their strategy for decades because it is hard to measure the effectiveness. How many terrorist attacks and domestic incidents are there (assuming in good faith those are the only things to be prevented) ? I would assume in the absence of any of these national security agencies that there were only very few per year if not decade. That makes it hard to adjust the strategy even if you assume that they are totally focused on security only, and not e.g. on the continued presence of their paycheck of suppression of opposition parties. To give you an example: the (American) security measures at the airport that were introduced in 2001 can be considered a total success, as there has been no incidence since then (success = good, people can get promoted for that[0]), although these measures have been called security theater at times[1]. And with these measures called successful by those promoted people, why change them? Of course some other people opine that they may not be as successful as they claim they are [2], but it is still hard to quantify. > instead of catching everything you see, you can also collect information until you find a pattern yeah that seems likely. Though this scares me personally as I may demonstrate a pattern now that will make me a suspect in the future, despite doing nothing wrong. [0] I worked at big tech once upon a time [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/tsa-business-security-theater-not-security/357599/ https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/tsa-bus... [2] https://www.thelocal.de/20091231/24279 https://www.thelocal.de/20091231/24279

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

I think it's interesting the UK's "emergency" requests list is so high relative to the overall requests made: Either the UK marks nearly all their data requests as emergencies, or are only requesting data in the case of an emergency.

pier25 6y ago

Considering this is Apple, I'm surprised how bad the UX of the cards+slider is. At least on desktop the country cards have a delayed animation and feels super unresponsive.

reillyse 6y ago
On an iPhone it took me a hell of a long time to swipe over to the US, we are talking minutes with all the miss swipes which accidentally forwarded me to other pages etc. for such a UI/UX focused company that seems fishy
- sdmw 6y ago
  Surprisingly it only takes a second on Droid.. But it wouldn't surprise me that they intentionally did it this way in order to discourage people to scroll to the numbers that hurt the most. https://imgur.com/a/ZJHc70U https://imgur.com/a/ZJHc70U
  - sqldba 6y ago
    That’s a really ameri-centric way of looking at things. “Only the US numbers hurt [because I’m in the US and only US people matter].
sagz 6y ago
The narrative that Apple is the bastion of good UX has sailed quite a while ago given their regressions with MacOS 10.14-10.15 bugs, iOS 13 bugs requiring major reOrgs, iPhone Battery-oriented CPU throttling with no user affordance, etc. Also their web design has been accessibility-hostile often enough with the landing pages of Trashcan Mac Pro, iPhone 12 etc all taking over your scroll…

dgellow 6y ago

What is happening with Germany?! 13761 devices?!

rbinv 6y ago
"High volume of device requests predominantly due to stolen device investigations": https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/de.html https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/de.html

darth_avocado 6y ago

Mainland China has less requests than USA? o.O

strictnein 6y ago
There are a lot more Apple devices in the US than in China. edit: Some data: US: 15 million iPhones in Q2 2020 [0] China: ~3 million in 2019 total [1] [0] https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/sales-us-coronavirus-3794157/ https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/sales-us-coronavirus-3794157... [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/apple-stock-hits-new-all-time-high-on-china-iphone-sales-data.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/09/apple-stock-hits-new-all-tim...
deleted 6y ago
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lettergram 6y ago

Interesting, the number of FISA warrants have been growing exponentially since 2014.

IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
There aren't even any FISA warrants listed before 2018, and since then the ranges being given change very little?

judge2020 6y ago

For context, the US page[0] lists the primary types of requests they get: > Device: High number of devices specified in requests predominantly due to return and repair fraud investigations. > Financial Identifier: High number of financial identifier requests predominantly due to iTunes Gift Card and credit card fraud investigations. > Account Requests: High number of accounts specified in requests predominantly due to fraud and cyber intrusion investigations and a third party app related investigation. I wonder what "a third party app related investigation" is about. 0: https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html#twocolgreytbl-c7b7253a817c00fdf9995e6f24efaf85-heading:~:text=Matters%20of%20Note https://www.apple.com/legal/transparency/us.html#twocolgreyt...

miguelmota 6y ago

They should sort the list by most government requests instead of alphabetically and in table format instead of that terrible horizontal slider.

santiagobasulto 6y ago
You’re so right. I’m on mobile. Terrible UX.
rowellx68 6y ago
It took me a while to figure out how to display another country/region on mobile! Sheesh
IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
They do link to CSV files though, which is nice. I'll take a shiny website and a linked .csv over a table-of-links to PDF files any day.

baby 6y ago

Lots of requests in France lately, I'm guessing due to the terrorist threats.

transitivebs 6y ago

Awwww shucks I was really hoping that Apple was announcing a transparent iphone.

tehwebguy 6y ago

Am I doing the math right on the seemingly huge increase in FISA / NSL requests? 2014: ~739 # Requests 2015: ~2,498 2016: ~8,998 2017: ~29,748 2018: ~49,494 # Users, display data changed this year 2019: ~68,994