苹果在“棱镜”项目中提供了哪些数据

Philip Elmer-DeWitt | 2013-06-19 11:18

苹果称，它在半年内收到了执法当局4000到5000次信息索取的请求，共涉及9,000到1,0000个账号及设备。不过苹果没有提供涉及iMessage和FaceTime上即时通讯内容的数据，因为它自己也无法破解这两项服务的加密。但它默认电子邮件、图片、视频及其它格式的文件受到了当局监控。

来源：美国国家安全局“棱镜”计划幻灯片

近日，苹果（Apple）被曝参与了“棱镜”计划，允许美国国家安全局（the National Security Agency）“直接”从其服务器上获取数据。为了安抚用户情绪，苹果在本周一早间发布了一份官方声明。要点如下：

• 相关部门索要了大量信息：从2012年12月1日到2013年5月31日期间，苹果收到了4,000到5,000次信息索取请求，涉及9,000到1,0000个账号及设备。

• 这些请求来自联邦政府、州政府以及地方当局，涉及刑事犯罪和国家安全等事宜。

• 苹果表示许多请求是正面的。“通常情况下，这些请求与盗抢犯罪等刑事调查、寻找失踪儿童和老年痴呆症患者，以及希望阻止自杀行为有关。”

• 苹果的法律团队仔细评估了这些请求，向当局提供了“尽可能最相关的信息”，甚至多次直接拒绝了对方的请求。

• 苹果没有提供任何涉及iMessage和FaceTime上即时通讯内容的数据，因为苹果称连它自己也无法破解这两项服务所采取的加密方式。至于国家安全局能否破解其加密方式，目前仍不得而知。

• 苹果保存的任何与用户相关的位置、地图搜索以及Siri语音搜索数据都无法回溯追踪到用户。尚不清楚国家安全局能否做到这一点。

• 苹果在声明中没有提到电子邮件、图片、视频以及存放在苹果服务器的其它格式文件，相当于默认了上述内容受到了有关部门的监控。

此外，苹果获得了美国政府的许可，可以仅发布执法部门索取的涉及用户的“一部分数据”。（财富中文网）

译者：项航

Embarrassed to find itself on the list of companies from whose servers the National Security Agency claims to have been "directly" collecting data, Apple (AAPL) issued a public statement early Monday that it hoped would allay its customers' concerns. Among the key points:

• The authorities asked for a ton of information: Between Dec. 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013 the company received 4,000 to 5,000 requests about 9,000 to 10,000 accounts and devices.

• The requests came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters.

• Many of those requests, according to Apple, were benign. "The most common form," it said, "comes from police investigating robberies and other crimes, searching for missing children, trying to locate a patient with Alzheimer's disease, or hoping to prevent a suicide."

• Apple's lawyers reviewed each request, provided "the narrowest possible set of information," and from time to time rejected the requests outright.

• Apple does not provide the content of conversations that take place over iMessage and FaceTime because those are encrypted in a way that Apple says it can't break. Whether the NSA can is left unanswered.

• Apple does not store data related to customers' location, Map searches or Siri requests in a way that can be traced back to the user. Again, whether the NSA could do that is not clear.

• By omission, Apple's statement implies that the contents of e-mail, photographs, videos and other files stored on Apple's servers are fair game.

Note too that Apple received the government's permission to release only "some of [the] data" related to law enforcement requests for information about its customers.

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