The relationship between governments and the main mobile phone manufacturers and operating system developers has always generated all kinds of theories and controversies. Just a few hours ago, the Reuters agency stated that unidentified governments were monitoring their own citizens through notifications that reached their mobile devices. We tell you all the details.
When our mobile device lights up its screen to warn us of a new notification, regardless of which application originates it, we overlook a key aspect: all of them travel through the servers of both Google like Apple, depending on the operating system with which we work. Apparently, these notifications serve to alert us or give us information about a specific topic and do not usually have greater relevance.
However, in a letter to Justice Department of the United States, Senator Ron Wyden stated that the notifications that ordinary consumers receive on our mobile devices can be used by governments around the world to collect information of any kind. Stating, furthermore, that both companies are in a “unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users use particular applications”.
Apple and Google will detail the requests
The statements made by Wyden have not been ignored by the companies mentioned. In fact, Apple has stated that they did not warn about the situation at any previous time, since “the federal government (…) prohibited the sharing of any information. Now that this method has been made public, we are updating our transparency reports to detail these types of requests.”
For its part, Google has also wanted to get out of the way by stating that it shares the “Wyden’s commitment to keep users informed of these requests”. For its part, the United States Department of Justice has not commented on the notifications that users received on their mobile phones, as well as possible impediments or prohibitions that had been imposed on the companies so that they could not mention anything about this topic.
No specific data
Although, at the moment, no specific data has been revealed in this regard. But it has been stated that different government agencies have repeatedly asked Google and Apple for metadata derived from the push notifications that would allow anonymous users to be linked to possible messaging applications, with the aim of unmasking certain cybercriminals or, at least, their inappropriate behavior. However, at no time has it been revealed which countries have undertaken this type of policy, despite having stated that they would be democracies considered allies by the United States.
Although we users do not usually give much importance to the notifications we receive on our terminals, the reality is that different experts have been addressing the issue for some time. complexity of maintaining privacy of the same if we take into account that, by obligation, they must go through the servers of the two companies that have been the subject of this article. It remains to be seen if in the future We know more details about it, both by the government sources themselves and by the two technology companies involved in the case.
