Apple has recently released its Report on Government Information Request Report similar to what Facebook did back in August. The report is aimed at allowing customers to understand how their personal information is handled in Apple:
We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protections available. Apple has prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world.
According to the report, which can be viewed in this link, in the period between 1 January 2013 and 30 June 2013, enforcement agencies from the U.S. have made 1,000 to 2,000 account requests that affect 2,000 to 3,000 specific accounts. Since the Cupertino company is not allowed to disclose the exact amount of information they released (in the States only), Apple only wrote that they granted about 0 to 1,000 of the requests. As for Device Information Requests, the U.S. government made precisely 3542 requests for 8605 devices whereby about 3110 of the requests were provided.
Locally, it looks like the Malaysian government did not make any Account Information Requests and made only 2 Device Information Request whereby none of them were granted. Device Information Request may include requests for the customer’s contact information provided to register a device with Apple or the date the device first used Apple services. Visit Apple to find out more.
