Apple and Google Spying on Phone Notifications for Governments
US Government, its allies, FBI, and police all have access to your phones notifications
It’s bad enough that your phone provider has all your text messages (including images), but now its been publicly disclosed that Google and Apple will give all your phone notifications from all your apps to the government without a warrant.
What is a “push” or “phone” notification?
A phone notification is the piece of information that is sent to your phone so you know you have new email, new Signal message, or any notification from an app on your phone.
A notification can contain:
What app is being notified
Who the notification is from
The text or images in the notification
That is a ton of information you thought was private. It’s not.
If you don’t believe me, read it in mainstream (legacy) media yourself. References found at the bottom of the article.
Prepare for my ranting. This injustice makes me crazy. The simple fact that every notification your phone receives - who you got it from and the contents of the notifications - are saved forever by Google and Apple for disclosure to Big Gov is a terrible privacy violation. The contents of a notification should be encrypted from sender to receiver and should be deleted from Google or Apple’s “cloud” as soon as I get the notification, but that’s not the case.
What makes me even crazier is the fact that people believe using a secure/privacy app like Signal or Session on an Apple iOS or a Googled Android is absolutely private. It is not. The message is private, the metadata described above is not. For example, you have Signal on your iPhone and use disappearing messages to ensure privacy but unknowingly you are still leaking information to Google and Apple.
“The United States government and foreign law enforcement can demand Apple and Google share metadata associated with push notifications from apps on iOS and Android”, according to court records reviewed by WIRED.”
“In the spring of 2022, my office received a tip that government agencies in foreign countries were demanding smartphone ‘push’ notification records from Google and Apple”, Senator Wyden stated in a letter.
What can you do?
Either turn off notifications for apps you don’t want tracked or use an actual privacy focused operating system on your phone. This means giving up your iPhone and putting GrapheneOS/Lineage or a similar De-Googled Android. If that sounds too techie for you that is why we launched our Privacy Society phones.
As soon as you turn on your regular phone, Google and Apple tracks your phone, so they know where to send notifications. If you think you are having a 100% private conversation while using a privacy apps on your Samsung S22 or iPhone, you are not.
The conversation can be private if using apps that use end to end encryption but you are still leaking metadata.
What’s Worse?
It’s been going on for a long time. This is not new.
“Senator Wyden asked the Department of Justice to repeal or modify any policies that hindered public discussions of push notification spying.” – Reuters
What?!? Hinder public discussion? The DOJ made Apple and Google keep their Big Tech mouth shut. What other secret surveillance programs do they have?
“Apple said that Wyden's letter gave them the opening they needed to share more details with the public about how governments monitored push notifications.” – Reuters
People still look at me funny when I see them using Signal on their iPhone and I tell they are still leaking information. This revelation is vindication.
Sales Pitch: If you don’t want to give up your personal government issued tracking device (iPhone or Googled Android – like a Samsung phone) get a Secret Phone (starts at $299) and put Signal on that so at least you are actually having private conversations with those that matter most without Big Tech and Big Gov getting in the middle. Visit the Privacy Society Online Store.
Salt in the Wound
Wyden's letter cited a "tip" as the source of the information about the surveillance. A source familiar with the matter confirmed that both foreign and U.S. government agencies have been asking Apple and Google for metadata related to push notifications, for example, help tie anonymous users of messaging apps to specific Apple or Google accounts. Once they tie your Signal, Session, or Proton Mail account to your Apple or Google account they know who you are, full stop. Pause to ponder that.
The US government is also giving access to this information to all of their allies. The US government giving information about their citizens to other countries without a warrant, do you still have your iPhone?
Google’s so called “transparency” report reveals that only 7% of its reported requests it handed over to the government had a warrant.
Getting Caught in the Wrong Net
The DOJ did have a warrant for the January 6th participants (Apple confirmed). The thing about Jan 6th is if you were close by, but not participating you could get caught in the digital net. Let’s examine, we know the FBI has tech to scan a local area for IMEI IDs of local phones. The IMEI number is your unique phone device ID (not your SIM card - that is different). This way they can find your phone plan provider and get all your text messages and phone records. Then they ask Google and Apple for all your notifications. I could go on and on, but they now have all that data forever.
Warning: Don’t be close to any activity that is unacceptable to the government because you could be a person of interest just by proximity. Drug dealer next door?
This is not hacker movie stuff. This is real!
I Need a Favor
Dear reader, I actually need three favors.
If you are reading this article and have not subscribed to this Substack, please do. More readers motivates me to write more and to help you in having a digital private life. Use a masked email if you wish, we do not sell your email to anyone.
Simply share this Substack with one person. We need people to know how Big Tech and Big Gov are in bed together to unlawfully track its citizens.
Please read the reference links below and make your judgements. I am confident you will come to the same conclusion as I did, I am still fuming!
In Closing
A digital private conversation has truly become difficult to obtain as the monitoring, logging, and tracking happens on so many levels. Big Gov wants monitoring and Big Tech provides.
If you are serious about privacy, liberty, and individual expression you need to be a student of “privacy best practices”. We are here to help you on your journey.
Thanks for reading.
"Google's so called "transparency" report reveals that only 7% of its reported requests from government has a warrant". I knew it was going to be low, but 7% is just disgusting 🤮!
Great info and a great read as always William!
I love my privacy phone! To all of you that are reading this and are not subscribed, do it and also do yourself a favour and buy a Privacy Society phone and protect yourself!
I like the idea of "Privacy Phone"... but what makes it so much more private? Also, depending on what provider one is using, does that choice minimize the privacy? A little more info on how the Privacy phones are keeping out tracking and data brokering would be helpful.