Apple stores metadata about who iMessage user contacted

Apple keeps track of who a user of its chat service iMessage has contacted on its own servers. This is according to a document from an American police service. Apple can’t see what’s in messages due to end-to-end encryption.

This does not only concern people with whom an iMessage user has exchanged messages, but also accounts of people whose name or number a user has only entered in iMessage, The Intercept reports. At that point, iMessage sends a request to a server to see if the other party also has iMessage. If not, the app will send the message via SMS.

Apple may provide police and intelligence agencies with the IP address of the iMessage user, the number or account of the person he or she has looked up, and the time. Apple emphasizes that looking up someone’s number or account does not mean that there has been contact between the two.

In a statement to The Intercept, Apple says it will transfer any data it has if services request it. In addition, the company emphasizes that it cannot provide the content of conversations, nor can it provide evidence of who someone has had contact with.

Apple has recently been taking pride in protecting user privacy. It ended up at the center of a discussion when it refused to make software to crack the iPhone 5c of a gunman in an attack in the American city of San Bernardino.