Apple tracks everyone you contact on iMessage, may share logs with law enforcement

Apple CEO Tim Cook was recently embroiled in a bitter battle with the FBI over anencrypted iPhone. He showed how user privacy is at the helm of the company culture. But, if a new report is to be believed than the iMessage isn’t as secure as you may have thought.

According to The Intercept, Apple may not know what your messages read, but it does know who you are talking to. When a user contacts anyone through Apple messages app, the app pings the server to find out if the recipient has an iMessage account. The report adds that Apple takes a note of the IP address along with the date and time. This could help with providing information on the user’s location.

The information is then stored for 30 days before it is deleted. “This log also includes the date and time when you entered a number, along with your IP address — which could, contrary to a 2013 Apple claim that “we do not store data related to customers’ location,” identify a customer’s location,” the report reads.

“Phone companies routinely hand over metadata about calls to law enforcement in response to pen register warrants. But it’s noteworthy that Apple is able to provide information on iMessage contacts under such warrants given that Apple and others have positioned the messaging platform as a particularly secure alternative to regular texting,” further adds the report.

On contacting Apple, the company told the news site that such details are offered only upon valid subpoena or court order. The statement reads, “In some cases, we are able to provide data from server logs that are generated from customers accessing certain apps on their devices. We work closely with law enforcement to help them understand what we can provide and make clear these query logs don’t contain the contents of conversations or prove that any communication actually took place.”

The Intercept gets the information from a leaked document titled ‘iMessage FAQ for Law Enforcement’, which states its for official purpose only and designated to Florida Law Enforcement Sources. And, it is said that Apple could provide this information to law enforcement when asked by the court.