Following revelations that the NSA, in cooperation with various telecom companies, was spying on private communications, Apple Inc. has released new technology that it says cannot be compromised by the police.
In an effort to protect the private communications of iPhone and iPad users, Apple said on Wednesday its latest mobile operating system, the iOS8, has built-in encryption features that does not allow anybody – even police with search warrants – from accessing data stored on handheld devices.
READ MORE: Hackers used police spy tool to steal
nude celebrity pictures
News of the updated features was unveiled together with a
statement to customers, some of whom expressed concern after it
was revealed that Apple in the past complied with legally-binding
police requests to unlock customer devices.
“Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your pass code
and therefore cannot access this data,” Apple said on its
website. “So it’s not technically feasible for us to respond
to government warrants for the extraction of this data from
devices in their possession running iOS 8.”
The statement then attempted to shine some light on national
security requests made by the government.
“A tiny percentage of our millions of accounts is affected by
national security-related requests. In the first six months of
2014, we received 250 or fewer of these requests. Though we would
like to be more specific, by law this is the most precise
information we are currently allowed to disclose.”
However, despite the new security features that come with iPhones
and iPads, Apple is still legally obliged to turn over customer
data stored elsewhere, such as in its iCloud service, which gives
users the ability to share photos, calendars and even their
locations with friends.
In order to protect this type of information, Apple users would
have to adjust their settings accordingly.
Apple’s new privacy policy is an effort to circumvent a recent
Supreme Court ruling, coming after revelations about government
snooping by former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward
Snowden, which said police need to obtain a search warrant to
collect electronic communications.
Ronald T. Hosko, the former head of the FBI’s criminal
investigative division, told the Washington Post the new
technological features may thwart law enforcement officers’
ability to solve and prevent crimes in the future.
“Our ability to act on data that does exist… is critical to
our success,” Hosko said.
However, although Apple users will be happy to know their
information is better protected than ever, forgetting a password
could prove to be an even greater nightmare than any government
intrusion of privacy.
According to Apple officials, users who forget their pass codes
with the new iOS 8 operating system will not be able to recover
them by contacting the company.
In order to access their phones, customers would first be
required to remove all data collected on their iPhones and iPads.
Apple is attempting to turn around a series of negative reports,
including Apple’s iCloud service being compromised earlier this
month by a hacker, leading to a number of nude photos of Hollywood celebrities - including
Jennifer Lawrence - posted to the internet.