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U.S. Senator Ron Wyden ( D - OR ) has warned in a missive to the Justice Department that unknown governments are spying on Apple and Google speech sound users through their push notifications . The varsity letter says his federal agency receive a tip last year that governing agency in foreign countries were “ exact ” push button notification records from the tech giants .
Push notification are the pop - up messages that look on your lock chamber screen and home screen to alarm you about new messages , update , breaking news and other app update . Since these push notice happen through Apple and Google ’s server , the tech giant are “ in a unique position to ease government surveillance of how users are using particular apps , ” Wyden , who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee , explains in the letter , which was shared with TechCrunch .
Wyden note that Apple and Google can be “ in secret oblige by governments to hand over this information . ”
“ Apple and Google should be permit to be gauze-like about the effectual demands they get , particularly from strange governments , just as the party regularly notify substance abuser about other types of government demands for data , ” Wyden wrote in the letter .
“ These company should be permitted to generally let on whether they have been compelled to facilitate this surveillance practice , to publish mass statistics about the turn of demands they meet , and unless temporarily choke by a court , to advise specific customers about requirement for their data . ”
Wyden call up on the Justice Department to repeal or modify “ any policies that close up this transparency . ”
The varsity letter wasfirst reported by Reuters .
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The data from these push notifications cave in Apple and Google information about which app receive a notification and when , in summation to details about the phone and Apple or Google report associate with the notification . The letter explain that in sure example , the companies may also receive encrypted content , which could admit the actual text display in the notice .
Wyden ’s letter does not peg down which foreign governments have call for Apple and Google for push button notification information .
Reuters reports , citing a source , that foreign and U.S. government agencies have postulate both Apple and Google for metadata from push notifications , including information that draw pseudonymous app users to specific Apple or Google accounts .
In an electronic mail to TechCrunch , Apple interpreter Shane Bauer say the federal governing prevented the engineering science giant from sharing any selective information on the thing .
“ Apple is committed to transparency and we have long been a supporter of effort to ensure that provider are able to give away as much information as potential to their users , ” Apple ’s representative said . “ In this case , the Union political science forbid us from sharing any selective information and now that this method has become public we are update our transparence report to detail these kind of request . ”
Apple said the technical school heavyweight will start breaking out the requests for pushing notification tokens it has received in its next approaching transparentness report .
Google voice Matt Bryant tell TechCrunch that the company shares Wyden ’s “ commitment to keep users informed about these postulation . ”
“ We were the first major company to publish a public transparency report sharing the number and types of government petition for user data we receive , including the requests mention to by Senator Wyden , ” the statement reads .
A search warrant filed in California regarding a condemnable theft case details how push notification demands can be used to hold information about a person . Thesearch warrant , seen by TechCrunch , include a section where an FBI peculiar agent save that when a user installs and downloads an app , the app send their telephone to prevail a push token , which is a unique identifier that allows Google to place which gadget the app is installed on .
“ After the applicable push notification serve ( e.g. , Apple Push Notifications ( APN ) or Google Cloud Messaging ) ship a Push Token to the twist , the Token is then sent to the app , which in turn beam the Push Token to the applications programme ’s waiter / supplier , ” the phonograph recording understand . Then , whenever a company sends a push notifications to a person ’s twist , it also send Push Tokens .
404 Media antecedently reported another court casein which push notification records were obtained using similar boilerplate language .
US intelligence activity confirms it buys Americans ’ personal information
