Wednesday was no exception. Sen. Ron Wyden , D-Ore., revealed in a letter to the Justice Department that investigators are employing an innovative method to surveil how their targets use smartphone apps.
Wyden said he received a tip about a year ago that government agencies were demanding records from Google and Apple about users’ “push notifications”—instant alerts delivered to smartphone users by apps, such as a notification about a new text message or a news update.
According to Wyden, push notifications aren’t sent directly from apps to their users. Instead, the apps typically send their notifications to Google or Apple, which serve as a “digital post office” of sorts, passing along those notifications to the user.For iPhones, this service is provided by Apple’s Push Notification Service; for Android phones, it’s Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging.While these services are convenient for users and developers, they […]
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