Apple leaked politician and user data to the Trump administration

At the request of the US Department of Justice, United States during the Trump administration, the Apple secretly leaked user data, including political opponents of the former president. The request for personal data occurred in 2018 and remained secret until May of this year, when the secrecy period expired.

How does the The New York Times, Apple leaked data on Democratic congressmen Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell (both representatives from California), their aides and family members, and also reporters. According to the information, the objective was to spy on the involvement of opponents in leaking information to the press. At the time, Schiff was the Democratic leader of the House Intelligence Committee, and one of the main topics discussed at that time was the involvement of the former Republican president with Russian government interference in the 2016 election campaigns. In this scenario, Trump faced the first impeachment request of his term.

Apple explains and guarantees not to have leaked emails or photos

“The subpoena, issued by a federal grand jury, included a gag order signed by a federal judge, and provided no information about the nature of the investigation, making it virtually impossible for the Apple understand the intent of the information sought without digging into users’ accounts,” said Fred Sainz, a company spokesman. “Consistent with the request, a Apple limited the information provided to the account subscriber's information and did not provide any content such as emails or photos.”

In this way, the request for secret data of politicians opponents and others was approved as the vast majority of the 250 requests on average that the company received from the government each week. In this case, on February 6, 2018, the Apple received a subpoena from the Trump administration to leak names and phone records connected to 109 email addresses and phone numbers.

Requests for personal data have more than doubled in recent years

The revelations now underscore the flood of law enforcement requests for tech companies to turn over their users’ personal information. The number of such requests has soared in recent years to thousands a week, putting the Apple and other big techs, like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, in an awkward position between law enforcement, the courts and the customers whose privacy they have always pledged to protect.

Companies regularly comply with subpoenas because they are legally required to do so. Subpoenas are often vague, which prevents companies from knowing the nature or subject matter of an investigation. Big techs may challenge some of the subpoenas if they are too broad or if they relate to a corporate client. Apple claims to regularly fight government requests for consumer data and inform affected users as soon as it is permitted.

Just as a reference to the volume being dealt with here, in the first six months of 2020, Apple contested 238 government demands for its customers' account data, or around 4% of such requests. The Facebook said it received nearly 123 requests from the U.S. government for data last year, up from 37 in 2015.

Google and Microsoft

Google has also received requests to provide personal data from users, including journalists The New York Times reported that it was more reluctant to hand over the information, since the newspaper is considered a corporate partner. Microsoft, meanwhile, was also involved in Trump's leak hunt, and claims it only learned that it had provided information to the government about a congressional staff member after a restraining order expired.

On Friday, the independent inspector general for the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into federal prosecutors’ decision to secretly seize the data of House Democrats and reporters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, also called for an investigation and called The New York Times’ revelation that the Apple has leaked data. Pelosi says the incident is a way to undermine the rule of law.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Verge e Apple Insider

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