Microsoft and Facebook Inc published similar data last week
after reaching a deal about disclosures with U.S. national security
authorities.
"We have asked the U.S. government for permission to
report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we
handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data," Apple
said.
In a statement posted on its website Apple said that the
requests were received from December 1 2012 to May 31 2013, and between 9,000
and 10,000 accounts or devices were specified in those requests, which came from
federal, state and local authorities. (link.reuters.com/bar88t)
The most common form of request came from police
investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children,
trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a
suicide, it said.
"Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our
customers' personal data, and we don't collect or maintain a mountain of
personal details about our customers in the first place," the company
said.
Apple said conversations which take place over iMessage and
FaceTime are "protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender
and receiver can see or read them. Apple cannot decrypt that data".
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