Initially, when you make use of Apple’s iMessage to send message, it gets encrypted so that Apple staff cannot have access to the message but the sender and the person the message is intended for.
But according to Intercept, this may not be so as not all people receive the information the way it is supposed to be and even such message can be sent over to the security operatives.
This may come as a surprise to Apple users who have taken the company as one that cares about privacy after it got involved with U.S. Justice Department early in the year concerning a court order that is pushing Apple into cutting through the security measures they have put in place.
But this is not the view that experts in the communication system have. As Will Strafach, iPhone hacker notes, it is important that the company knows the content of a message and where it is being delivered to.
Intercept said that the information concerning the person a user is sending iMessage is kept as well as such information as to whether the person is making use of iOS device. If after checking and the person is confirmed to be making use of iOS, then the message will be routed with the use of iMessage after encryption as will be evident from the bubbles from the blue chat.
If the reverse is the case, such message will only be sent as standard message text without it being encrypted and will be evident from the bubbles in green as seen in the messaging app.
According in trying to defend that it logs information said that such are deleted at the end of 30 days. But this is not to say that police cannot use court to demand that the company release such information because it has been stored.
When the court order is gotten and enforced, the number of days that a person’s message record can exceed the stated 30 days.
The company had insisted that it encrypts its iMessages that giving out information concerning people’s conversation may be doable.
With this stand, the company may be acting in line with its legal guide process that states that when relevant authorities demand for such information with a court order, they will have no choice but to hand it over.
Even after messages are encrypted, metadata can be unravelled over time. This means that a pattern can be used to trace whom it is you are messaging to and those that are contained in your personal or social network data.
If someone is noted to be chatting often with a line that deals with suicide crises, such a person can be viewed as having mental challenges that is serious.
Intercept also claims that IP addresses are also used to find out one’s location.
It is important to state that the IP addresses are not enough to give out all the information needed. However, legal guide of Apple made it known that they could provide such information should it be needed by police after obtaining a court order.
