Apple said it will no longer hand over users’ push notification files to law enforcement unless the company receives a valid court order.
In Law enforcement guidelines were updated this weekApple said law enforcement and government agencies can now obtain push notification records with a court order or search warrant, which must be approved by a judge.
Previously, Apple allowed police to obtain this information with a subpoena, which is issued by police departments and law enforcement agencies without judicial oversight.
Apple’s change in how it handles requests for push notification data comes days after US Senator Ron Wyden revealed that Apple and Google can be “covertly forced by governments” to hand over the content of push notifications sent on customer phones.
For its part, Google requires a court order before delivering push notification data.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment, nor did it say why it had previously allowed law enforcement to obtain users’ push notification data without a warrant.
Push notifications appear as pop-up messages on a phone that notify the user of new messages, breaking news, and other app-based updates. Push notifications are typically routed through Apple and Google’s servers, meaning “Apple and Google are in a unique position to facilitate government tracking of how users use certain apps,” Wyden said.
According to Wyden, the previously secretive practice meant that Apple and Google could not publicly disclose these types of government requests. Wyden said unnamed foreign governments are also demanding that Apple and Google hand over user push notification data.
Not all apps are vulnerable to eavesdropping or receiving push notifications from law enforcement.
Meredith Whittaker, president of encrypted messaging app Signal, told the a series of Mastodon posts that Signal’s push notifications “do not reveal who sent the message or who is calling” and are “processed entirely on your device.”
