Apple said Monday that United States authorities have asked the company to provide information on thousands of Apple users over the previous seven months, according to CNN Money.
The company said local, state and federal authorities provided 4,000 to 5,000 requests for about 9,000 to 10,000 Apple devices or accounts.
The company admitted some requests were connected to matters of National Security. However a majority of the requests were for situations such as suicide prevention or missing person cases.
This statement from Apple comes amidst the continuing story of Edward Snowden, the U.S. computer analyst who leaked information on the country’s efforts to monitor a host of personal information and communication.
Many citizens are questioning the abilities and access of “Prism”, the National Security Agency surveillance program that began in 2001 after the terrorist attacks in Washington D.C. and New York City.
Apple said it learned what “Prism” was on June 6. Since that date, it has joined other companies who have asked U.S. officials to allow publication of stats on government requests for data. The companies have also asked for permission to publicize how each request was dealt with.
"Regardless of the circumstances, our legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities," said Apple through a statement. "In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it."
Other companies have also released reports on government requests.
Facebook says they received 9,000-10,000 requests for about 18.000-19,000 accounts in the second half of 2012.
Microsoft said it received about 6,000-7,000 warrants and subpoenas (both criminal and security-related) which affect up to 32,000 accounts.
According to Apple there was certain information it could not provide because it did not record that information. For example, FaceTime video chats and iMessage conversations were not recorded because, according to Apple, the company uses an end-to-end encryption allowing only the receiver and sender to see or read the conversation.
"Apple cannot decrypt that data. Similarly, we do not store data related to customers' location, Map searches or Siri requests in any identifiable form," said the company.
Google said it was able to separate requests for national security purposes with other types of requests, even though this is usually difficulty when a whole bunch of requests are coming in at once.
The accusation of government spying in the U.S. may create some issues for the United Kingdom, especially with the G-8 summit this week. Recently, British publication The Guardian, published a report based on information from Snowden. According to the newspaper, the country’s electronic intelligence agency tried to gain access to officials’ cell phone passwords during the 2009 G-20 summit.
