Apple will be launching a dedicated web portal for authenticated law enforcement officers to submit lawful requests for data, track requests, and obtain responsive data from the company by the end of the year.
The web portal will be available globally as part of Apple’s new Law Enforcement Support Program, which the company detailed on the Government Information Requests page of its privacy website this week.
The tech giant says the program will allow it to uphold its fundamental commitment to protect the security and privacy of its users.
Apple also said it’s building a team of professionals dedicated to training law enforcement officers. This will include the development of an online training module for officers.
On the Law Enforcement Support Program site, Apple had this to say: “Apple receives various forms of legal process requesting information from or actions by Apple. Apple requires government and private entities to follow applicable laws and statutes when requesting customer information and data. We contractually require our service providers to follow the same standard we apply to government information requests for Apple data.
“Our legal team reviews requests to ensure that the requests have a valid legal basis. If they do, we comply by providing the narrowest possible set of data responsive to the request. If a request does not have a valid legal basis, or if we consider it to be unclear, inappropriate, or overly broad, we challenge or reject the request. We report on the requests every six months.
“We’ll continue working for greater transparency and data security protections on behalf of our customers. Apple has never created a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services. We have also never allowed any government direct access to Apple servers. And we never will.”
