Android, iOS push notifications used by governments across the world to spy on us, Senator Wyden warns

Senator Ron Wyden warns that governments around the world are spying on smartphone users through push notifications on iOS and Android devices.

The US senator raised concerns in a letter to the Justice Department, saying foreign officials were demanding Google and Apple's data because almost all push notifications pass through Google and Apple's servers (via Reuters).

This puts them “in a unique position to facilitate government oversight of how users use certain applications,” Wyden says. He called on the Justice Department to “repeal or modify any policy” that hindered public discussions about push notification spying.

Apple says it was prohibited from sharing information

In a statement, Apple said Wyden's tip gave them the green light to share more details about how governments monitor push notifications. “In this case, the federal government has prohibited us from sharing any information,” the Cupertino giant said in a statement. “Now that this method has become public, we are updating our transparency reports to detail these types of requests.” The Justice Department did not return messages seeking comment on the push notification monitoring or whether it had blocked Apple or Google from discussing it. Google did not return messages seeking comment.

Who is the source?

Senator Ron Wyden cited a “tip” as the source of the latest information. His team did not provide additional comment, but internal sources confirmed that foreign and U.S. government agencies had requested metadata related to push notifications from Apple and Google.

So far, the aforementioned foreign governments have not been named, but the source describes them as democracies allied with the United States. Well, at least this time the public won't hear about Russia and China, right?

The Reuters report recalls comments by French developer David Libeau who earlier this year said users and developers were often unaware of how their apps were sending data to U.S. tech giants via push notifications, calling them ” privacy nightmare.”