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"From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 ac
by josephlord 13y ago
"From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement for customer data. Between 9,000 and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters."
This looks pretty good (assuming it is honest) with only one possibility for a big weasel worded escape which if they are using they might as well lie.
It doesn't say "information was requested" or "information was provided" for only 9,000-10,000 devices but that only that number were specified. If there were orders that didn't specify devices and accounts (e.g. all messages globally). It might be that this is to cover the fact that those communicating with the specified devices would have some information revealed or it might be that the "specifed devices" figure is misleading.
If anything these numbers are suspiciously small (once the local police department regular investigations are removed). Unless there is a significant breadth to the requests you have to wonder if the FBI (and NSA/CIA for non-citizens) are doing enough targeted requests to track real suspects. Following this line of reasoning you could conclude that they don't need to!
- Zr40 13y ago> It doesn't say "information was requested" or "information was provided" for only 9,000-10,000 devices but that only that number were specified. Actually, it does say that: "were specified in those requests".
- josephlord 13y agoI don't think that I explained well enough. The number "specified" may be less than those information is provided on in the resulting report. "All devices in the US" does not specify any devices but it includes rather a lot. In a more limited way a request for a specific users details could also include traffic information about first level contacts (and possibly more - try seven degrees and see how few requests you can make to get all the company's details). Now a plain reading of "all the devices in America" would suggest that it specified millions of devices but the NSA like their wordplay and they might only mean when specific devices are requested rather than included in another request. Note that Yahoo doesn't mention the number of accounts specified. Possibly they thought that might be too misleading. [1] http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/53243441454/our-commitment-to-our-users-privacy http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/53243441454/our-commitment-to-o...