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(Reuters) – Apple Inc. (AAPL.O) plans to create an online tool that allows police to formally request data on its users and build a team to train the police for data that can be obtained from the iPhone maker, according to a letter from the company to Reuters .
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the company is visible outside the first Apple Store of Austria, which opens on February 24, during a presentation in Vienna, Austria, the February 22, 2018. REUTERS / Heinz-Peter Bader / Photo File
The letter, dated September 4, came from Apple's legal advisor, Kate Adams, to US Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat.
Apple declined to comment beyond the letter.
Apple can and provides certain user data, such as data stored in its iCloud online service, to law enforcement officials if they make a valid legal request.
But Apple has met with law enforcement officials in the United States because it encrypts its devices in such a way that Apple can not access the devices if it is asked.
The company said in its letter that it had responded to 14,000 US law enforcement requests last year, including 231 "national emergency requests," which had been processed within 20 minutes of receiving them.
Apple has previously processed these requests via email, a spokesman for the company confirmed. At the end of this year, Apple will provide an online tool for law enforcement officials to make and follow requests, according to its letter.
Apple said in its letter that it had trained nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers on how to obtain data from the company. The training had already been conducted in person at Apple's headquarters, but the company announced that it would create an online training and a team of trainers to extend its reach to smaller departments.
He said the training and portal would be available worldwide.
A report published in July by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and interviewed by US and US law enforcement officials said their main concern was which technology companies had access to what data and how get them even month after month, consumers are using new devices and services.
"Regardless of what is happening in the encryption debate, these efforts must be undertaken," Jennifer C. Daskal, one of the report's authors, told Reuters. "Law enforcement must know and be able to access the data available."
Apple participated in the study by answering questions from researchers, as did other technology companies.
(This story corrects paragraph 7 to spokesperson instead of spokesperson)
Report by Stephen Nellis
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