Apple releases a transparency report each year which covers the government requests as well as third party requests related to law enforcement agencies working on behalf of customers who have requested assistance regarding lost or stolen devices.
The latest transparency report published by Apple shows data from January 1 to June 30, 2020 and it shows how many requests were made for user data from around the world and how many could Apple comply. An overall decrease for request of data in the report was observed of this year compared to last year. In the first half of 2020, Apple received 28,276 device requests covering 171,368 devices. Apple was able to comply with 80% of the requests while the year before in 2019 Apple received 31,778 device requests in the first half of 2019, covering 195,577 different devices. Apple was able to comply with 82% of those requests.
Apple regularly receives multi device requests which are related to fraud or theft investigations and device based requests seek customer details that are associated with the device or devices. At times the details can be for a number of devices as given in one case scenario by the company that if a whole shipment of devices is stolen then law enforcement may seek information related to several device identifiers in a single request.
The tech giant also said that the worldwide government financial identifier requests were down year-over-year. According to the company these requests generally cover situations where the law enforcement agencies are working on behalf of customers who have requested assistance regarding suspected fraudulent credit card activity used to purchase Apple products or services.
While a decrease in both the user data for device requests and government financial identifier requests was observed there was an increase in the requests for account requests. In the beginning of 2020 Apple received 9,872 account requests covering 31,200 accounts and was able to comply to 85 percent of these requests. This was an increase from the 6,480 account requests from the beginning of 2019 despite the number of accounts going down by 37,605.
The next in the report was data for the App Store and according to the company it received 56 legal violation takedown requests which covered 239 applications. 46 of those requests came from mainland China, covering 152 applications. Apple also received 17 requests covering 39 apps for platform policy violations. 16 of these requests came from mainland China.
The takedown requests for App Store was down by year over year in terms of both the legal violations and the platform policy violations.
Read next: More Shady iOS Apps Are "Recommended By Apple" & Charging Users Subscription Fees
The latest transparency report published by Apple shows data from January 1 to June 30, 2020 and it shows how many requests were made for user data from around the world and how many could Apple comply. An overall decrease for request of data in the report was observed of this year compared to last year. In the first half of 2020, Apple received 28,276 device requests covering 171,368 devices. Apple was able to comply with 80% of the requests while the year before in 2019 Apple received 31,778 device requests in the first half of 2019, covering 195,577 different devices. Apple was able to comply with 82% of those requests.
Apple regularly receives multi device requests which are related to fraud or theft investigations and device based requests seek customer details that are associated with the device or devices. At times the details can be for a number of devices as given in one case scenario by the company that if a whole shipment of devices is stolen then law enforcement may seek information related to several device identifiers in a single request.
The tech giant also said that the worldwide government financial identifier requests were down year-over-year. According to the company these requests generally cover situations where the law enforcement agencies are working on behalf of customers who have requested assistance regarding suspected fraudulent credit card activity used to purchase Apple products or services.
While a decrease in both the user data for device requests and government financial identifier requests was observed there was an increase in the requests for account requests. In the beginning of 2020 Apple received 9,872 account requests covering 31,200 accounts and was able to comply to 85 percent of these requests. This was an increase from the 6,480 account requests from the beginning of 2019 despite the number of accounts going down by 37,605.
The next in the report was data for the App Store and according to the company it received 56 legal violation takedown requests which covered 239 applications. 46 of those requests came from mainland China, covering 152 applications. Apple also received 17 requests covering 39 apps for platform policy violations. 16 of these requests came from mainland China.
The takedown requests for App Store was down by year over year in terms of both the legal violations and the platform policy violations.
Read next: More Shady iOS Apps Are "Recommended By Apple" & Charging Users Subscription Fees
