Apple has apparently received at least one Patriot Act order

Google and many other tech firms have also fielded Patriot Act requests

When the first-ever Apple transparency report was published in 2013, the company included a note that it had never received any Patriot Act-related information requests from the government.

That's now changed, it seems.

That note about not having received any Patriot Act requests appears to have been something called a "warrant canary," which companies apparently use to indicate when they've received requests that they can't otherwise legally disclose.

When the "canary" disappears, it means the company has received a secret subpoena, Patriot Act request or other clandestine order - and sure enough, Apple's is nowhere to be seen.

The note in the original transparency report was originally identified on culture blog Boing Boing.

"Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act," it read. "We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us."

But Apple's subsequent reports, from the second half of 2013 and the first half of 2014, omitted the canary.

Section 215 of the Patriot Act specifically allows the National Security Agency to requisition companies' business records, and forbids those companies from disclosing such activity. It's likely part of the reason why PRISM was allowed to exist.

This development comes at a time when government requests to companies for data like user info has increased dramatically, so it's no surprise that Apple may have been subject to them as well.

Tech firms early this year struck a deal with the US Department of Justice that lets them disclose numbers of requests made through the US's FISA court, which include Section 215 Patriot Act requests and more.

The companies must wait six months to disclose these numbers, and there are other restrictions, but still, it could be just a matter of time before Apple is able to comment on this in some capacity.

Via GigaOM

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Apple transparency reports allude to Patriot Act demands

Apple may be attempting to hint at something it cannot disclose publicly, for fear of government retribution. CNET

Apple removed text from its latest transparency reports, which suggests that the company has received a top secret data demand.

These so-called "warrant canaries" can be issued ahead of a Patriot Act demand, because technology companies are not allowed to disclose whether or not they have received such an order.

Apple, however, preemptively asserted it "never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act," in its debut transparency report in November 2013.

That text has now been removed from its latest two reports, suggesting Apple has, in the second-half of 2013 onwards, received such an order.

Apple does add in its report covering the first half of 2014 that, "To date, Apple has not received any orders for bulk data," suggesting a broad-ranging warrant was not served.

Patriot Act requests are highly controversial. Section 215 particularly raises eyebrows, as it allows the US National Security Agency to hand over "all tangible things," including customer data and business records.

By going to the secretive Washington D.C.-based Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the government's go-to court for surveillance requests, a Section 215 order can be filed in secret and force a company, like Apple, to hand over data.

The "bulk metadata" program, which forced phone giant Verizon to hand over on an ongoing basis its entire store of phone call data, was authorized under Section 215. The program was first disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last year.

The removal of the warrant canary, first reported by Gigaom, in conjunction with a major push by Apple over the past day to inform its customers about data requests, and a lengthy interview with PBS' Charlie Rose (you can read part one and part two here) suggests that Apple may be silently screaming about something it cannot disclose publicly, for fear of government retribution.

We've put questions in to Apple and will update once we know more.

This story originally appeared as "Apple omits 'warrant canary' from latest transparency reports; Patriot Act data demands likely made" on ZDNet.

View the original article here