Dropbox Got Up to 249 National Security Requests in First Half of 2014
Posted on September 12, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security
Dropbox released another transparency report on Thursday and announced that moving forward, it will do so every six months in an effort to keep the public informed of its interactions with authorities.
Bart Volkmer, a lawyer with the company, revealed in a blog post that Dropbox had received 268 request for user information from law enforcement agencies between January and June of this year. In addition, while he hasn’t specified an exact number due to restrictions, the Dropbox representative said there had been 0-249 national security requests.
The company received a total of 120 search warrants and provided content (files stored in users’ accounts) and non-content (subscriber information) in 103 cases. In response to 109 subpoenas, the company hasn’t provided law enforcement with any content, but it has produced subscriber details in 89 cases. While many of the requests came from the United States, the report shows that there have been a total of 37 requests from agencies in other countries.
Volkmer has pointed out that while these numbers are small considering that the company has 300 million customers, Dropbox only complies with such requests if all legal requirements are satisfied. He claims cases in which agencies request too much information or haven’t followed proper procedures are “pushed back.”
The report also shows that the rate of data requests from governments remains steady. An interesting aspect is that agencies keep asking Dropbox not to notify targeted users. However, customers are notified as per the company’s policies, except for cases where there’s a valid court order. A total of 42 users were notified when the file sharing service was presented with search warrants, and 47 individuals were informed in the case of subpoenas.
There haven’t been any requests from governments targeting Dropbox for Business accounts, the company said.
“We’ll push for greater openness, better laws, and more protections for your information. A bill currently in Congress would do just that by reining in bulk data collection by the US government and allowing online services to be more transparent about the government data requests they receive,” Volkmer said. “Another would make it clear that government agencies must get a warrant supported by probable cause before they may demand the contents of user communications. We’ll continue to lend our support for these bills and for real surveillance reform around the world.”
While many companies publish transparency reports to keep the public informed of requests from governments, interesting details can also emerge from court documents. A perfect example are a series of recently unsealed documents showing that US authorities threatened to fine Yahoo $ 250,000 a day if it failed to comply with PRISM, the notorious surveillance program whose existence was brought to light last year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
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Apple iPhone ‘Threat to National Security’: Chinese Media
Posted on July 12, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security
BEIJING – Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has accused US technology giant Apple of threatening national security through its iPhone’s ability to track and time-stamp a user’s location.
The “frequent locations” function, which can be switched on or off by users, could be used to gather “extremely sensitive data”, and even state secrets, said Ma Ding, director of the Institute for Security of the Internet at People’s Public Security University in Beijing.
The tool gathers information about the areas a user visits most often, partly to improve travel advice. In an interview broadcast Friday, Ma gave the example of a journalist being tracked by the software as a demonstration of her fears over privacy.
“One can deduce places he visited, the sites where he conducted interviews, and you can even see the topics which he is working on: political and economic,” she said.
The frequent locations function is available on iOS 7, the operating system used by the current generation of iPhones released in September 2013. “CCTV has only just discovered this?” said one incredulous Chinese microblogger.
The dispute is not the first time Apple has been embroiled in controversy in China, where its products are growing in popularity in a marketplace dominated by smartphones running Google’s Android operating system.
Apple lost a lawsuit against a Chinese state regulator over patent rights to voice recognition software such as the iPhone’s “Siri” just this week.
In March 2013 the Californian company was notably the target of criticism orchestrated by the Chinese media on behalf of consumers, who were critical of poor after-sales service.
And in 2012 the US firm paid $ 60 million to settle a dispute with another Chinese firm over the iPad trademark.
The privacy scare also reflects mutual distrust between the US and China after a series of allegations from both sides on the extent of cyber-espionage.
Leaks by former US government contractor Edward Snowden have alleged widespread US snooping on China, and this month it was reported Chinese hackers had penetrated computer networks containing personal information on US federal employees.
Apple did not immediately respond when contacted by AFP for comment.
Related: Obama Not Allowed an iPhone for Security Reasons
Related: NSA Tracks Mobile Phone Locations Worldwide
© AFP 2013
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