Apple now requires a court order to hand over customer push notifications to law enforcement, plugging a privacy hole and aligning its policy with Google's. It hasn't announced the change, but Reuters reports that it "appeared sometime over the past few days" on Apple's posted guidelines for officials wanting the data.
These are the audible "dings" or visual indicators users get when they receive an email or their sports team wins a game. What users often do not realize is that almost all such notifications travel over Google and Apple's servers.
In a letter first disclosed by Reuters last week, [Oregon Senator Ron] Wyden said the practice gave the two companies unique insight into traffic flowing from those apps to users, putting them "in a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users are using particular apps."
Apple is "doing the right thing," added the only good Ron in either house of the U.S. Congress or any of its Governors' mansions.
