Apple said that in the second half of 2017, the U.S. government made 16249 requests for user information, involving 8249 users. Compared with the first half of 2017, the number of requests increased by 20%. At that time, Apple received 13,499 such requests. begging.
However, the latest data is 2.5 times higher than the same period of last year. At that time, Apple received only 5,999 such requests for data.
From the second half of 2016 to the first half of 2017, other technology companies also experienced an increase in the number of national security requests for data. For example, in the first half of last year, the number of requests received by Google increased by one-third compared to the previous quarter. Similar to Facebook. The demand almost doubled to nearly 27,000.
Facebook and Google have not released the transparency report for the second half of 2017 because the two companies published personal numbers of national security letters and requests in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA. The number of FISAs was reported by law for six months. Delay. Apple released the total number of two types of requests, so it can report the data faster.
Apple also said Friday that it will start reporting applications to the government for downloading applications from the App Store.
Last year, Apple took over virtual private network applications (VPNs) from China’s App Store to comply with a new Chinese cybersecurity law. These applications help users browse the Internet more privately and are used to evade Chinese Internet censorship rules. Chinese regulators have also forced Apple to remove Microsoft’s Skype Internet phone and SMS app from the Chinese App Store.
Apple’s new APP download request tracking starts on July 1, so data will start appearing in one year.