When Apple and Facebook handed over personal data to hackers posing as authorities

Apple and Facebook shared the user’s personal data with hackers posing as police officers.

Apple has always prided itself on making the privacy of its customers and users as its top priority, which it does in its products and services to the greatest extent possible. Let’s just say it’s not always possible. Indeed, when government agencies have official permission to collect data from a particular user, companies, whether Apple, Facebook or others, are required to comply with them.

Apple and Facebook handed over the user’s personal data

That being said, if the Bloomberg report is to be believed, it appears that Apple and Meta passed the user’s personal data to hackers who posed as agents of power.

You might be wondering how it all works. Explanation. Typical requests for personal data require a warrant or subpoena signed by a judge. However, there are also “emergency requests”that do not require such a court order, and these are the requests that the hackers took advantage of.

hackers posing as cops

According to a spokesman for the Cupertino company, “The advisory cited by Apple states that the government official or police officer who made the request “may be contacted and asked to confirm to Apple that the request was urgently legitimate.”

That said, while it may seem like simple human negligence, Allison Nixon, director of research at specialist firm Unit 221B, defends Apple and Facebook in their handling of the matter.

According to Allison Nixon, “In all the stories where these companies screwed up, there was originally one person trying to fix it. I can’t tell you how many times trust and security teams have saved lives because employees had the legal flexibility to respond quickly to a tragic situation for a user.”