Apple now requires judge’s nod to provide push notification data

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) now needs a judge’s order to provide data related to its customers’ push notification to law enforcement,

The move places Apple’s policy in line with tech giant Google, and increases the hurdle officials must surpass to get app data about users.

The new policy was not formally announced but disclosed sometime in the past few days on Apple’s law enforcement guidelines. The move follows Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s letter last week revealing that unidentified governments were surveilling smartphone users through their apps’ push notifications.

Wyden said in the letter to the U.S. Department of Justice that in the spring of 2022, his office received a tip that government agencies in foreign countries were demanding smartphone “push” notification records from Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (GOOGL) Google and Apple (AAPL). Wyden added his staff were investigating the tip for the past year, which included contacting Apple and Google. In response to that query, the companies told his staff that information about this practice was restricted from public release by the government.

The “push” notifications travel over Google and Apple’s servers.

The data these two companies receive includes metadata, detailing which app received a notification and when, as well as the phone and associated Apple or Google account to which that notification was intended to be delivered, Wyden had noted.

Apple added a passage to its guidelines noting that data was available “with a subpoena or greater legal process.” The passage was updated to refer to more strict warrant requirements.

Wyden said in a statement to Reuters that Apple (AAPL) was “doing the right thing by matching Google and requiring a court order to hand over push notification related data.”