In what was, for me, a very surprising turn of events, Apple turns out to be the tech company most willing to hand over user data upon request, despite the company claiming to value user privacy and ensure that it remains that way.
A report compiled over nearly a decade concluded that requests for user data received by Apple increased by nearly 500%, and Apple complied with those requests. Around nine million cases were investigated in 190 countries for major tech companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Meta. Each company accepted more requests than I wanted to believe:
- Apple: 82.04% of all inquiries
- Google: 72.88% of all queries
- Meta: 72.81% of all queries
- Microsoft: 67.42% of all requests
The big iPhone is watching. | Image credit — PhoneArena
Perhaps not surprisingly, most requests to the above companies came from the United States. Over the past decade, one in every 100 Americans had their data requested by authorities. Germany came in second and Singapore came in third. Meta accounts were the most frequently requested.
Apple has been at the top of the list of companies disclosing user data since 2016. This was a shock to me because I had always thought that Apple was the hardest company to get user data from. I certainly didn't think that Microsoft would be less compliant than Apple.
Of course, the amount of data these companies collect from us grows every year, so you can expect your local authorities to know quite a bit about you should you ever show up on their radar.
Apple may make some of the best phones worth buying today, but that point may be moot for some consumers when they come across this report.