Apple Quietly Changes Policy, Search Warrant Now Required to Send Certain Customer Data to Law Enforcement

Apple has quietly changed its legal guidelines to now require U.S. law enforcement agencies to obtain a court order if they want access to specific aspects of the tech giant’s customer data. In Apple’s updated guidelines, the tech giant will now only share customer data about push notifications with law enforcement “in response to a search warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause, or customer consent.” In the past, the company accepted a subpoena to hand over customer data. The critical difference between the two is that a subpoena compels the company to act in response to a request for information. In contrast, a search warrant is far more aggressive and authorizes a legal authority to take action to retrieve the information....