Documents reveal: Apple saves the Imessage logs – 99mac

Apple’s chattplattform #Imessage to send messages that are encrypted from end to end, which according to Apple means that no one other than the sender and recipient can access and read the conversation, not even Apple themselves.

Leaked document shows, however, that the Apple stores metadata about the conversations, namely what phone numbers a user had contact with. This information is stored by Apple in 30 days and can be requested by the police and other authorities. It reports The Intercept as part of a secret document used by the police in Florida.

the Document goes through the type of information that is possible to request it from the #Apple, and shows that in addition to phone numbers saved to the recipient’s IP number and the date and time that a contact request took place.

What happens when a user sends a message using Apple’s Imessage system is that the app will contact Apple’s servers to find out if the recipient is also using Imessage. If it has, the message will be sent through the service which is displayed as a blue speech bubble. Otherwise, the message is sent as a normal TEXT message, and will appear as a green bubble. There is information about this specific request that is stored, and which can be requested.

The leaked document shows what data is stored.

Can’t prove the conversation

Request sent immediately when a message begins, and is stored thus, regardless of whether the message itself is then transmitted or not. According to the document stresses the Apple, therefore, that the information can not prove that a conversation between the two parties actually took place, but only that a request has begun. For example, it is possible that a phone number is entered incorrectly, and thereby be stored despite the fact that there is no link between the sender and the receiver. Alternatively, a conversation is started, but then never occur if the user changes.

Despite the fact that the document was used by the Florida police, it is not clear who wrote the document. By the wording that it seems not to be Apple itself that supplied it, and in the text, it is not clear either how often a request is made to Apple’s server. It does not seem to be each time a message is sent, after the original förfågan taken place.

Apple also confirmed to The Intercept that the information will be deleted after 30 days. A court order to request data, however, can often apply for longer than 30 days, which means that the authorities would be able to collect a series of logs over time, and then put together into a longer list of phone numbers.

Apple’s chat client is available on both Mac, IOS devices and Apple Watch.

Apple has previously taken a clear position for its user’s privacy, and repeatedly highlighted that the Imessage conversations are encrypted. Apple also provides a special web page where they state their privacy policy. Apple also outlines what type of data the authorities can request it from them, and how they respond to such a request.

The metadata around Imessage, which will be saved is not mentioned specifically by Apple on their site, but they write, however, that the logs of the connection to Icloud are stored for 30 days, and that a log of all calls made with videoappen Facetime is also saved.