'Nigeria Didn't Request Its Citizens' Private Information'

 

 

Although consumer electronics company, Apple Incorporated, has been receiving requests from various countries across the world to provide information regarding users of its products and applications, Nigeria has yet to approach it, a report released on Tuesday has indicated.

A similar report by social networking site, Facebook, in September said four African countries - Egypt, South Africa, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire - sought access to private data of their citizens.
But the Facebook report revealed that the Federal Government did not make such request in the first half of the year.
The report by Apple came six months after a contract was allegedly awarded by the FG to an Israeli firm, Elbit Systems, to spy on citizens’ computers and Internet communications. This development had raised apprehension that the governement could approach tech and Internet companies to seek needed information.
Following in the footsteps of Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo, Apple stated in the transparency report, which is its first, that the data it was providing  covers the period between January 1, 2013 and June 30, 2013.
However, the report revealed that Swaziland was the only country on the African continent that requested for its citizen’s private information.
It said law enforcement agents in the landlocked country in southern Africa, made a request seeking information provided to register a device and the date a particular citizen began to use Apple services, for an investigation. But it added in the report that no data were produced for the request made.
A former technical contractor and Central Intelligence Agency employee, Edward Snowden, had raised the alarm that the United States government, under a programme codenamed PRISM, was monitoring Internet traffic. This forced Internet and tech companies to open up government requests it gets for customer / user information.
Justifying the release of the report, Apple noted on its website that it owes its customers around the world the responsibility of informing them on the way and manner their personal information was being handled.
“We have prepared this report on the requests we receive from governments seeking information about individual users or devices in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world. We believe that our customers have a right to understand how their personal information is handled, and we consider it our responsibility to provide them with the best privacy protection available,” Apple noted.
The tech company categorised the type of requests it received from government agencies across the world as ‘account requests’ and ‘device requests’, adding that the two involved very different types of data.
It stated in the report that government agencies in 43 countries demanded information about roughly 40,000 Apple accounts or devices.
It noted that the requests for data on holders of Apple accounts it received from the various governments include those seeking personal information, such as e-mails addresses, stored photographs and other contents of its users stored online.
The tech company explained that the ‘account request’ basically involved those that help in resolving crimes, like robberies, as well as missing person cases, adding that responding to such usually involves providing a name and an address.
“Account-based requests generally involve account holders’ personal data and their use of an online service in which they have an expectation of privacy, such as government requests for customer identifying information, email, stored photographs, or other user content stored online.” it stated.