Apple transparency report: here’s how many devices the US government tried to access in 2020

Twice a year, Apple has a habit of publishing its transparency report, which details statistics related to third-party requests for personal data or records stored on Apple’s servers. And Apple regularly receives thousands of such requests from governments and other agencies around the world, whether it registers, whether those requests have been fulfilled or not.

Thanks to a report of CNET, we now know that Apple’s transparency report for the second half of last year has finally been released. Perhaps one of the most interesting things to remember is the fact that requests for information from government and private parties have declined moderately in number compared to the previous year. Namely, data requests fell by almost half compared to 2019.

This is especially interesting given the data breach scandals surrounding the 2020 US Presidential Election (when this transparency report was being collected), with pervasive data and privacy breaches.

Similar to the decline in data requests, the number of instances where Apple complied with those requests also declined, to 77% (globally) from 80% in 2019. The number of devices for which Apple received applications in the second half of last year is recorded. like 83 307.

While Apple does not always have the freedom to disclose all information regarding government-issued data requests, the company said the United States has requested access to approximately twenty-five thousand Apple accounts linked to national security (under the Foreign Intelligence Oversight Act). .

The FBI has also sent hundreds of national security letters to Apple, with the Bureau attacking around a thousand Apple accounts during the second half of 2020.

When it comes to international data requests, Germany wins the Most Numbers award, as it apparently tried to access a total of 16,819 devices. China follows after, ending the second half with 11,372 applications. Interestingly, it is 13 times as many requests as China made in 2019, when they made less than a thousand data requests.