Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) said on Wednesday that it is working to make it impossible to hand over any iPhone or iPad user data to police, even if they have a search warrant. The company surely is making attempts to overcome the criticism that it has never resisted collaborating with the government when it collects user information.
Apple making iOS 8 unbreakable
The latest action from the company was paired with the release of its newest operating system, iOS 8. Apple has essentially worked the other way around by altering its latest encryption methods to prevent any agency or individual other than the user from accessing the massive amount of data saved on their smartphone or tablet rather than abiding by court orders.
Every Apple device has an encryption key that the user needs to punch in to access data like photos, emails and recordings. Previously, the company used to fetch some content for the police, but it has withdrawn all such facilities for iOS 8 under its new privacy policy.
On its official website, the iPhone maker said that it can’t “bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data.” The statement read that it is not technically feasible for the company to comply with government warrants for accessing data from devices that are powered by iOS 8.
Data stored elsewhere still accessible
However, it will still be the company’s legal responsibility to provide user data stored in other apps such as iCloud, which is used to back up photos, videos, email communications, music collections and other things if needed. Users who want to keep the police from accessing any of their information will have to change their settings to keep their data from backing up to iCloud
Almost five years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that police should have a search warrant in most circumstances if it wants to access data on iPhones. But it seems like Apple is working towards shutting itself out from accessing user data by designing these new security features.
iOS 8 will start powering iPhones over the next several weeks, which means that the number of iPhones and iPads that Apple could breach for the police will soon start declining to the point at which only devices that don’t run on iOS 8 can be accessed.
