National Security Requests to Apple Spike

The number of data requests from the U.S. government to Apple Inc. more than doubled last year, according to a biannual transparency report released by the consumer tech giant Friday.

Apple received 16,249 national security requests across 8,249 accounts between July 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2017, almost three times higher than the amount of requests received during the same period in 2016, when the company saw just 5,999 such requests.

Broadly speaking, a national security data request is usually made to compel access to private user information that’s stored by the company. These requests sometimes allow the government to learn more about suspected terrorists, criminals or other targets in order to pursue legal charges. (Cyberscoop, May 29, 2018)