- The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Apple acknowledged Tuesday being contacted by government officials over a recently disclosed iOS feature that slows down older model iPhones.

“We have received questions from some government agencies and we are responding to them,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in a statement.

Bloomberg first reported Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating Apple over possible federal securities law violations, citing multiple people familiar with the probes.

The government inquiries into Apple stem from the company’s admission last month that a software update released in early 2017 slowed down early-model iPhones, Bloomberg reported.

Apple has said the feature was meant to stop older devices from unexpectedly shutting down, but the company has come under fire for not clearly notifying users until several months after it was introduced.

“We did say what it was, but I don’t think a lot of people were paying attention and maybe we should have been clearer, as well,” Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told ABC News.

Federal investigators have requested information from Apple and are reviewing public statements made by the company concerning the performance issue, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

“As we told our customers in December, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades,” Ms. Muller said.

Investigators are reviewing whether Apple may have misled not just its customers, but investors as well, Bloomberg reported.

Representatives for both the DOJ and SEC declined to comment, the report said.

• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.

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