Apple Now Requires a Court Order to Share Your Push Notification Information
In case you missed it, governments and law enforcement agencies can spy on you through push notifications . It’s not healthy; in fact, there are now more reasons than ever to turn off notifications permanently . However, things are changing a bit: Apple will now need a judge’s approval before sharing your push notification information.
Last week, Senator Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Justice Department asking that Apple and Google be allowed to warn their users whenever the government or law enforcement agencies request push notification data from them. The letter caught the attention of everyone from tech journalists to politicians as the news came as a bit of a shock. “What do you mean governments can ask for information about our push notifications?” The letter did not ask the Justice Department to stop this foreign interference: it asked the agency to free Apple and Google so they could alert us that this was happening in the first place.
On the positive side of the letter, Apple responded by saying that Wyden’s public request gave the company the opportunity to talk more about the topic. While we haven’t heard much since then this week, that all changed today.
Your push notification data is safe until a judge rules otherwise.
Apple quietly updated its law enforcement guidelines this week , Reuters discovered . The company will now refuse to share your push notification data with anyone who comes looking for it unless they have a judge’s order to do so. Apple will essentially ask governments and law enforcement, “Got a warrant?” As it turns out, this is already Google’s policy, so Apple is catching up a little here.
While it’s still not good that governments and law enforcement can demand this data from Apple and Google, at least the legal system now puts an additional barrier between you and your information. Unless you find yourself in a situation where a judge agrees that your privacy should be violated, you should be protected from these claims regarding your push notification data. Of course, I don’t mind turning off all but the most important alerts, just in case.