Apple denied the accusation that it included backdoor services in iOS that could be exploited by law enforcement and other government agencies in order to obtain personal data from iOS devices. The denial statement was provided to Financial Times journalist Tim Bradshaw who shared the communication on Twitter. Apple does not deny the existence of the services discovered by forensic scientist Jonathan Zdziarski, but instead claims the functions are diagnostic and primarily used for troubleshooting and enterprise control of devices.
In response to allegations that Apple installs “backdoor” services in iOS that could be used to harvest and deliver personal information to government agencies, the company on Monday issued a statement denying any such activity and explains the steps taken to ensure customer data privacy. According to a statement sent by email to Financial Times journalist Tim Bradshaw, who subsequently posted a snippet of the note on Twitter, Apple reaffirmed it has never work with any government agency to create a backdoor in any consumer product or service. “We have designed iOS so that its diagnostic functions do not compromise user privacy and security, but still provides needed information to enterprise IT departments, developers and Apple for troubleshooting technical issues. A user must have unlocked their device and agreed to trust another computer before that computer is able to access this limited diagnostic data. The user must agree to share this information, and data is never transferred without their consent. As we have said before, Apple has never worked with any government agency from any country to create a backdoor in any of our products of services.”
