San Ramon (USA): Defending its image as a custodian of privacy, technology giant Apple has said that it has its hands tied with the investigations of the previous Donald Trump administration. Due to which the company was forced to hand over the phone data of two Democratic Party MPs. Apple on Friday detailed an aggressive attempt by the US Justice Department to exercise legal force to trace the leak of information related to the Trump investigation into ties to Russia.
The US Justice Department managed to persuade a federal judge to issue a subpoena to Apple, requiring Apple to provide phone records and messaging information to House Intelligence Committee members Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell during 2018. The two Democratic lawmakers from California are part of a committee investigating Trump’s ties with Russia. Neither Schiff nor Swalwell knew that some of the information had been confiscated by May 5.
The disclosure of Apple’s compliance with the summons comes at a time when the company has stepped up efforts to highlight privacy as a “fundamental human right” in its marketing campaigns. Apple also beefed up privacy in April when it tightened privacy controls on the iPhone, making it harder for companies like Facebook to track people’s online activities to sell ads.
Apple said in a statement that it will continue to fight unreasonable legal demands for personal information and will notify consumers about them. In this case, however, Apple said it was bound by the order signed by a federal magistrate judge and had no knowledge of the nature of the investigation.
