A Delhi court has directed Apple to give the location details of suspended BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar on the day that he allegedly raped a 17-year old girl from Unnao. This was reported by Huffington Post. District Judge Dharmesh Sharma, during in-chamber proceedings on September 25, directed Apple to file their reply by September 28, the day of the next hearing.
The Unnao rape survivor was discharged from AIIMS Delhi, where she was admitted after she met with an accident in July. The survivor’s family is living in Delhi under CRPF security, as per the Supreme Court’s order.
FBI v. Apple
In February 2019, a federal judge in US had asked Apple to help the FBI unlock an iPhone belonging to Syed Farook, who was responsible for the shootings in San Bernardino in California, that left 14 people dead. The judge had asked Apple to provide “reasonable technical assistance” to the U.S. authorities. This would have required Apple to overhaul the system that disables the phone after 10 unsuccessful password attempts. Once this feature kicks in, all the data on the phone is inaccessible. Apple had declined to help the FBI.
At the time, Apple CEO Tim Cook had called the judge’s order “chilling” and said it would require writing new software that would be “a master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks”.
The case had marked a debate between encryption and privacy on one hand, and law enforcement access to date and public safety on the other. Eventually, the FBI managed to break into the shooter’s phone without Apple’s help.
Apple’s Transparency report: 185 requests from India in 2018
Government and law enforcement agencies in India sent Apple 185 requests for information, according to Apple’s Transparency reports. Apple has divided the government information requests into four categories:
- Device: requests seeking customer data related to device identifiers, such as serial number or IMEI number.
- Financial Identifier: requests seeking customer data related to financial identifiers, such as credit card or gift card.
- Account: requests seeking customer data related to account identifiers, such as Apple ID or email address.
- Emergency: requests seeking customer data in an emergency matter
According to Apple’s Transparency updates for the January-June 2018 and for July-December 2018, Apple received 76 device requests, 62 financial identifier requests, 36 account requests, and 11 emergency requests from Indian law enforcement.
In cases where Apple provided data in response to a request, the data involved the “customer associated with a specific device/account/financial transaction, connection logs, service, purchase or repair information”.
January – June 2018
July – December 2018
