In WikiLeaks’ ongoing dump of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta. In an email with Apple’s VP Lisa Jackson may come as a surprise to some Apple customers at first, but after reading through it, it makes sense.
The email says that Apple shares data with the government thousands of times a month, even with encryption, the company has to comply with law.
Thousands of times every month, we give governments information about Apple customers and devices, in response to warrants and other forms of legal process. We have a team that responds to those requests 24 hours a day. Strong encryption does not eliminate Apple’s ability to give law enforcement meta-data or any of a number of other very useful categories of data.
But remember, there are over one billion active Apple devices. The email was sent soon after Clinton voiced her opinion on encryption in the tech industry, something we’ve already seen before.
In the email, Jackson thanks Podesta for the “principled and nuanced stance” Clinton took on encryption and the entire tech industry.
However, reading more into the story Jackson becomes a bit more confused, it seems. Jackson writes that Apple constantly gives the government “information about Apple customers and devices.”
Which could easily be misjudged and interpreted as Apple hands everything over. The next sentence in the email does note that they only hand over information in response to warrants and other legal requests.
It’s important to not let this blow out of context though. Apple and Tim Cook have long said that information is given to the government with proper legal and warrant requests.
