Apple complies with most data requests from Irish Government

Irish authorities made close to 300 requests for customer data from tech giant Apple last year, new figures show.

In its latest transparency report, Apple said it provided data in the majority of cases to Irish agencies.

Overall, 286 requests for data were received by Apple, of which 176 were made in the first half and 110 in the remaining six months of 2018.

This compares to 314 requests for information made to the tech giant in 2017.

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One emergency request from the Republic was received by Apple last year, which was granted. These requests typically relate to situations in which individuals are perceived to be in danger.

The majority of requests for data last year related specifically to devices. Apple said that requests of this kind are often from law enforcement agencies seeking to help customers recover lost or stolen devices. Sometimes they also relate to fraud investigations.

Apple said it received 255 requests for information relating to 390 devices last year. It provided data in relation to 217 requests.

The report shows the tech giant was less forthcoming in providing information regarding “financial identifier” requests, where information is sought regarding suspect transactions involving, for example, the purchase of Apple goods by someone using a credit card fraudulently.

Irish authorities made 20 such requests last year relating to 197 transactions but were only granted data in nine cases.

In addition, local law-enforcement agencies made 10 requests involving 38 accounts but were only provided full customer information in one instance. Authorities also made one preservation request involving two accounts, which was granted.

Apple introduced its twice-yearly transparency report in 2013. The reports breaks down the number of account and device data requests it receives from law enforcement by country.

The company recently began providing information regarding requests to take down apps from its App Store. According to its latest report, there were 80 requests from 11 countries to remove 634 applications in the second half of 2018.

Apple said that it received 29,183 requests for device data from 213,737 devices worldwide in the second half, for which it supplied data in 22,691 of cases.

Germany made the most requests with 12,343, followed by the US with 4,680 requests.