Apple Tracks Your IMessage Contacts and May Share Them With Law Enforcement
What you say in your iMessages may be somewhat confidential and protected from the prying eyes of law enforcement, but the people you have on your contact list are not. In fact, Apple logs your iMessage contacts almost every time you enter a new number to start a message.
Sam Biddle of The Intercept reports that Apple records and stores the phone numbers and IP addresses of all of your iMessage contacts every time you enter a number into your iPhone to start a text conversation. The Messages app contacts Apple servers to determine if a message will be sent via SMS or iMessage, and during this exchange, Apple logs metadata that includes all of your iMessage contacts – whether you’ve ever contacted them or not … The log also includes the date and time you entered the number, as well as your IP address. These logs are then stored for 30 days and can be turned over to law enforcement agencies by court order.
This is not new, as many companies collect data that passes through their systems and pass it on to law enforcement. But it is important to know that although the contents of your iMessages messages may be confidential and is encrypted, with whom you can contact and with whom – no. The entire report is worth reading, so check it out at the link below.
Apple registers your contacts with iMessage and may share them with the police | Interception