A report compiled over almost a decade came to the conclusion that user data requests received by Apple have increased by almost 500%, and it complied. Around nine million cases were studied across 190 countries for major tech companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta. Each company has accepted more requests than I’d have liked to believe:
- Apple: 82.04% of all requests
- Google: 72.88% of all requests
- Meta: 72.81% of all requests
- Microsoft: 67.42% of all requests
Big iPhone is watching. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. accounted for the most number of requests made to the aforementioned companies. Every one in 100 people in the U.S. have had their data requested by authorities over the last decade. Germany was second and Singapore came in third place. Meta accounts were what was most often requested.
Apple has been topping the user data disclosure list since 2016. This came as a shock to me because I had always been under the impression that Apple was the most difficult company to get user data out of. I certainly wouldn’t have guessed Microsoft to be less compliant than Apple.
Of course, the amount of data these companies collect from us only increases each year. So you can expect your local authorities to know quite a lot about you should you ever come under their radar.
Apple may make some of the best phones worth buying today, but that point might be rendered moot for some consumers when they come across this report.
