Smartphone users spied on through notifications

Authorities in some countries can monitor smartphone users through notifications. Reuters reports this.

This practice became known after US Senator Roy Wyden contacted the US Department of Justice. In his letter, the politician said that he is aware that the authorities of some countries can spy on their citizens through notifications on smartphones. The senator also said that he conducted his own investigation.

In response, Apple confirmed that authorities in a number of states ordered it to share log data with notifications, but it was prohibited at the federal level from disclosing this information. The corporation clarified that after Ron Wyden’s appeal, the company received this right and will report the facts of requesting notification logs in its transparency report.

A Reuters source also confirmed the surveillance and said that both the US government and other governments have asked Apple and Google for information about the notifications. According to experts, the notifications rarely contain confidential information, but the spying party can derive some benefit from this data.

Earlier, the network disclosed an internal letter from Apple from 2013, in which the company accused Google of spying on users of Android smartphones. In particular, in it, executives of the Tim Cook corporation called Android-based devices “surveillance devices.”