MACKENZIE RUROEDE–Personal electronic data kept on cell phones and stored in the ever-elusive “cloud” is subject to privacy breaches by both citizen hackers and law enforcement. For over forty years, the government has requested that companies comply with police requests to obtain costumer information conveyed through phones, circumventing the customer’s consent. These privacy threats have given technology companies an opportunity to offer safeguards to consumer information. Apple has taken advantage of this lack of defense through its latest operating system, iOS 8. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, expressed his commitment to protecting the privacy of Apple’s customers and their digitally stored information. With Apple’s latest operating system, Apple customers’ iCloud content, including iMessage and FaceTime data, photographs, and contacts, are now inaccessible by both Apple and law enforcement because the data is protected by “end-to-end encryption.” This mode of encryption guards all content that is protected by a passcode. Because the electronic data is encrypted, Apple does not have access to the stored information; thus, law enforcement is required to have the electronic device, such as a cell phone, in hand with the device’s passcode to obtain information stored on the device.
Apple’s operating system is the newest safeguard to law enforcement searches of data stored on cell phones. Recently, the Supreme Court limited law enforcement access to electronic information stored on cell phones. In Riley v. California the Supreme Court held that law enforcement must obtain a warrant before searching a cell phone when officer safety and destruction of evidence are at issue.
With just under 20% of the United States population owning an Apple cell phone and Google announcing an encryption plan for its soon to be released operating system, many law enforcement officials will be left searching for a way to circumvent new advances in digital information protection. Apple’s new defense system has given law enforcement a new challenge to obtaining electronically stored data from a significant portion of the population. This greatly affects law enforcement access to device information, as opposed to account information, because Apple cannot bypass the device’s passcode. Apple reports 93% of law enforcement search requests are device requests. Data encryption will protect those cell phones subject to device requests.
Apple’s advertised electronic data protection is limited. Although Apple cannot promise to protect against government requests based on issues of national security, it does promise to protect electronically stored information from non-national security based search warrants. Additionally, data protection is limited to data that is transmitted through a device, excluding phone calls, which are under the purview of the cellular provider; Apple does offer protection of iMessages and FaceTime communications. Additionally, Apple is also seeking to expand the scope of protected data by filing a number of amicus briefs.
Apple, with its latest operating system, is the leading force in countering free access to data stored on cell phones. Because Apple prohibits itself from accessing costumer data without a passcode, it has legally protected itself from having to provide data to law enforcement at the behest of its costumers. The FBI and other government agencies have expressed their concern over data encryption as a “safe haven” for criminals and may look to Congress to limit corporate safeguards to privacy infringements. Although Apple’s policy likely stemmed from gaining a foothold in the marketplace, data encryption, teamed with the latest decisions from the Supreme Court on the issue of access to cell phones, have placed law enforcement at a significant disadvantage.
