From now on, Apple will only share push notification data to governments with a court order

Apple has announced that from now on it will only hand over data about push notifications to governments if they have a court order to do so. A week ago it was announced that the company, like Google, shares such data with governments.

In its Legal Process Guidelines document Apple added a passage stating that a court order or search warrant is required before the company hands over the push notification data, Reuters discovered. Previously, Apple provided such data through a subpoena, which can be issued by law enforcement or other law enforcement agencies without judicial intervention.

Google has long required a court order before sharing notification data. While Apple did not respond to questions from Reuters, US Senator Ron Wyden said the company is now “doing the right thing by, like Google, requiring a court order before handing over push notification-related data.”

The same senator revealed last week that tech companies primarily pass on such data to governments. The content of the notifications cannot usually be deduced from that data, but it can be determined from which app it came. It may also contain information about the user’s location. Governments can use that data, among other things, to keep an eye on a specific person. Apple confirmed the existence of this form of government requests and already announced that it will from now on include this data in its semi-annual transparency reports.