Apple has fallen short on its transparency reports, which highlight every relationship between Apple, world governments, and our data. This is shocking since the updates have occurred silently, and they are seriously delayed considering that they updated the 2023 year-end closing three months ago and are only just releasing information for the months of January through June 2024. Certain oddities have been noted with the United States government, and in the case of Spain, the record of more than 500 requests stands out. Is our privacy in good hands?
Apple received a good number of requests from the Spanish government.
Apple is committed to being transparent about government requests for customer data and how we respond to them. We publish a Transparency Report twice a year that discloses the number of government requests for customer data Apple receives globally. Government and private entities must comply with applicable laws and statutes when requesting customer information and data from Apple.
This is what can be read in the foreground when we open the corresponding page on the subject. According to its statistics, 540 requests were received regarding devices, 640 requests regarding financial identifiers, 156 requests regarding accounts, and only one emergency request for which data was provided. Most requests did not receive data, which is reflected in the compliance percentages between 34 and 36 percent.
Spain can rest easy regarding push-token requests; in the United States, they have increased dramatically.
What drew attention to this issue, as highlighted by 404 Media, is the number of requests related to “push-token” data. This is “metadata that identifies which device received a notification from a specific app.” The problem also lies in the fact that it can sometimes reveal the content of unencrypted messages. The issue drew particular attention from the US government when Senator Ron Wyden accused Cupertino and Google of “discreetly” handing over this information.
At the time, Apple justified that it was only able to respond to these requests starting in the second half of 2022 and that before that, they were included in the account or device categories, which clearly fell into secrecy. The number of requests increased since 2023, from 48 to 129 in the first half of 2024. What is also striking is that compliance with these requests is decreasing, from 88% of requests responded to in 2023, it dropped to 28% in the first half of 2024. According to 9to5Mac, these requests have been increasing year after year worldwide. What is not explained, although they are surely trying to be discreet again in the eyes of the world, is why they are responding to fewer requests.
We’ll see if the statistics continue their downward trend in the second half of 2024, for which there’s no known update date, given Apple’s delays in delivering information. Likewise, we’ll see if at some point in time those in Cupertino can elaborate further on the topic, specifically on issues related to the push-token requests that governments are requesting and increasing at the same time.
