Apple CEO Tim Cook’s stressed the company’s privacy policy and the safety of user information this week, but he did not disclose whether the government had seized information under the Patriot Act.
“I want to be absolutely clear that we have never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products or services,” Mr. Cook said. “We have also never allowed access to our servers. And we never will.”
But the letter made no mention of Section 215 of the Patriot Act – which allows the federal government to obtain business records in secret if they deem there is a relevant national security threat.
Apple has written similar disclosure notices which specifically name Section 215. In November the company denied turning over user information.
“Apple has never received an order under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act. We would expect to challenge such an order if served on us,” the November letter reads.
Business Insider reported Friday that Apple has been including a “warrant canary” in its reports on government information requests since last year. The warrant canary is designed to inform the public that the company has not handed over information to the government.
Records show that Apple has received between 0 and 250 National Security Information requests as of June 2014, Business Insider reported.
In a recent interview with PBS’ Charlie Rose, Mr. Cook denied rumors that Apple’s servers had been infiltrated.
“There were rumors and things being written in the press that people had backdoors to our servers — none of that is true,” Mr. Cook said. “We would never allow that to happen. They’d have to cart us out in a box.”
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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