Apple users we feel safe with the company. After the controversy of the famous "San Bernardino iPhone" and the continuous public statements of the top leader of the company, Tim Cook, I think few of us doubt that Apple treats our data as if it were a treasure. The company is aware that currently, privacy and security are rising values, and so far, except for security flaws that no company is exempt from, we can be quite sure that we are in good hands.
However, even assuming that our confidence is based on one hundred percent certain facts, the reality is that not even Apple is free from a court order that forces it to provide certain personal data of the users to the police or judicial authorities. And this is precisely the problem behind the information that the company stores on its servers regarding the contacts we have in iMessage.
iMessage, do you guarantee our privacy?
During the past months of March and April, the messaging platform Apple's iMessage experienced some security holes that facilitated the leakage of photos and messages respectively. It was not the first security problem the company has faced, and unfortunately for users, it is not going to be the last.
Apple acted lightly and in no time had patched these security flaws. Even so, this fact revealed that the race between companies like Apple to strengthen their security systems, hackers and also government agencies such as the FBI was not going to stop.
Apple has taken a number of steps to keep our personal information private. A good example of this is that the iPhone unlock code, or the fingerprint itself, is not stored on the company's servers. But this does not mean that always and in all cases our data is one hundred percent safe.
The metadata, which can be provided to the police
According to a report posted by The Intercept, the metadata of the conversations we have with our contacts through iMessage is stored on Apple's servers. So far we can be calm, however, this circumstance triggers that the company could be forced to hand over this information to the police after a court order.
The content of the conversations is NOT recorded, but the list of connection times, the date, the frequency with which we interact with a specific contact, the user's IP address and even certain information regarding the location. How is this possible?
When we type a phone number in iMessage to start a text conversation, Apple's servers detect that number to determine if the new contact uses iMessage. If not, the texts are sent through SMS messages and the bubbles appear in green, while the messages sent through iMessage appear in blue.
Having Apple in its possession this information, the authorities could legally request these records, and Apple would be required by law to provide them.
What Apple Said, and What It Didn't Say
Apple claimed in 2013 that iMessage offered an end-to-end level of encryption, so no one, not even the police, could have access to them. While this is true, didn't say anything about the metadataAccording they affirm from Engadget.
Apple has confirmed to The Intercept that it complies with the legal requests for these exact records, but that the content of the messages still remains private. The truth, as we all know, is that telephone companies have been providing this data "forever", and although Apple resisted the onslaught of the FBI at the beginning of the year and established a new, much more secure file systemIn the end, it seems that there is always something that is beyond our control.
And despite all this, and this is a purely personal perspective, I believe that Apple is the company that best guarantees our privacy today, because if we talk about Google or Facebook we have for a while.