Apple says it has secured its new iOS 8 operating system with safeguards that protect phones from being snooped on ... by Apple. Since thousand of files from the National Security Agency (NSA) were leaked last year, Yahoo, Google, Apple and other major tech companies have been pressured to explain how much personal data they have handed over to the government as a result of legal requests. With iOS 8, Apple has protected itself by making it impossible for the company to access a phone's photos, messages, reminders, emails and more without that phone's passcode — something Apple used to be able to do. "Unlike our competitors, Apple cannot bypass your passcode and therefore cannot access this data," the company wrote. "So it's not technically feasible for us to respond to government warrants for the extraction of this data from devices in their possession running iOS 8." That does not, however, apply to email and photos stored in iCloud, which Apple says represents only a "small fraction of requests from law enforcement."
IN-DEPTH
- How to Download iOS 8 and What You'll Get
- Will Apple's Watch Break the Fashion Barrier?
- iPhone 6 Review: It’s a Winner (Re/Code)
SOCIAL
— Keith Wagstaff
.
