Espionage through mobile notifications: the trick of some governments to know everything about you
It has just been revealed that Still unknown and unidentified governments are using push notifications in Google and Apple apps to spy on users. Senator Ron Wyden warns about this worrying episode of surveillance, where government agencies demand data from these technology giants.
Push notifications or notifications pushthose alerts with sounds and that can be seen on the screen, seem to be the new and silent way by which governments can track users.
The striking thing is that almost all of these notifications travel through Google and Apple servers, giving them a unique view of the flow of information. Wyden notes that this puts these companies “in a unique position to facilitate government surveillance of how users use certain applications.”
It explains that Apple and Google could be “secretly forced by governments to hand over this information.” “Apple and Google should be allowed to be transparent about the legal demands they receive, particularly from foreign governments, just as the companies regularly notify users about other types of government data demands,” Wyden writes in a letter.
How is this spying possible through simple notifications?
Simply put, when an app sends a notification, the process involves transferring a “push token” between the app and Google or Apple’s notification service.
This token is not permanently linked to a user, but allows authorities to keep track. Wyden comments that records obtained by governments can include metadata about which applications are used, when notifications are received and details of the user’s mobile phone.
For example, depending on the information disclosed, the government, without your knowledge, could require Apple or Google to provide it with data about when you receive those notifications and what other applications you are using. With this, the government could know your interests, your daily habits and even your location based on the information in those notifications.
With all of this in mind, Senator Wyden urges the Department of Justice to allow require Apple and Google to disclose these government requests and to modify any policies that hinder transparency. In response, Apple has updated its Law Enforcement Guidelines in its transparency report, detailing requests for push notification records.
“Apple is committed to transparency and we have long supported efforts to ensure that vendors can disclose as much information as possible to their users,” the Apple spokesperson said. “In this case, the federal government prohibited us from sharing any information and now that this method has been made public we are updating our transparency reports to detail these types of requests.”
Google spokesman Matt Bryant told TechCrunch that the company shares Wyden’s “commitment to keeping users informed of these requests.”
“We were the first major company to publish a public transparency report that shares the number and types of government requests for user data we received, including the requests Senator Wyden refers to,” they explain.
