What we’re commonly asked for and how we?respond.
Apple receives various forms of legal process requesting information from or actions by Apple. Apple requires government and private entities to follow applicable laws and statutes when requesting customer information and data. We contractually require our service providers to follow the same standard we apply to government information requests for Apple data. Our legal team reviews requests to ensure that the requests have a valid legal basis. If they do, we comply by providing data responsive to the request. If a request does not have a valid legal basis, or if we consider it to be unclear, inappropriate or overly broad, we challenge or reject the request. We report on the requests every six?months.
We’ll continue working for greater transparency and data security protections on behalf of our?customers.
Apple has never created a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services. We have also never allowed any government direct access to Apple servers. And we?never?will.
Law Enforcement Support Program
We believe that law enforcement agencies play a critical role in keeping our society safe, and we’ve always maintained that if we have information we will make it available when presented with valid legal process. In recognizing the ongoing digital evidence needs of law enforcement agencies, we have a team of dedicated professionals within our legal department who manage and respond to all legal requests received from law enforcement agencies globally. Our team also responds to emergency requests globally on a 24/7 basis.
We publish legal process guidelines for government and law enforcement agencies globally, and we publish transparency reports twice a year detailing the types of requests we receive and how we respond. In addition, we regularly provide training to law enforcement officers on the types of data available from Apple and how to obtain it consistent with our legal process guidelines.
Register for the online law enforcement training course
We are also in the process of launching an online portal for authenticated law enforcement officers globally to submit lawful requests for data, check request status and obtain responsive data from Apple.
Apple is committed to protecting the security and privacy of our users. The above developments and the work we do to assist investigations uphold this fundamental commitment.