Compliance Management, Privacy

Apple cannot comply with search warrants on iOS 8 devices

If government officials come to Apple with a warrant to unlock a user's phone, the company says that for devices using iOS 8, there's nothing it can do to comply.

Devices running the new operating system will protect all personal data, including call history and messages, through a passcode that cannot be bypassed, according to a post on Apple's site. Government warrants requesting data from a device must obtain the information directly from the device owner.

A separate privacy post on Apple's site expanded on the new security measures and emphasized the company's stance on individual privacy.

With regard to iMessage and Facetime, Apple wrote that the company uses end-to-end encryption and cannot decrypt messages in-transit, so it “wouldn't be able to comply with a wiretap order, even if we wanted to.”

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