Apple has hosted two conferences in the past five years to teach law enforcement agencies how to use its products in operations, a new report reveals.
forbes The Global Police Summit was held behind closed doors once in 2019 and once in 2023, with police officers from up to 50 departments from seven countries reportedly participating.
The incident contradicts reports suggesting Apple is at odds with law enforcement over protecting user privacy.
mixed signal
Most of us use technology on a daily basis, and as technology becomes increasingly integrated into our daily lives, the potential for technology to invade users’ privacy expands. In 2022, Meta received over 400,000 data requests from law enforcement agencies and disclosed at least some information in 75% of them.
Discussions and talks held at the conference covered a number of topics, including surveillance and basic communications. The platform reportedly enabled collaboration and discussion between government agencies around the world to share successes and lessons learned from leveraging technology.
Among the popular products at the convention were the Vision Pro headset for surveillance operations and Apple CarPlay for police vehicles. “The Apple ecosystem all works together very well,” commented Orange County Police CIO Dave Fontneau.
Recent advances in technology have raised new privacy concerns, including AI facial recognition services that Microsoft has banned from law enforcement. The summit signals that Apple is trying to bridge the gap between supporting law enforcement and protecting customer privacy.
“These companies want to have their cake and eat it too,” explains Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “They want to have a reputation for protecting users’ data, and they’re willing to do so at the expense of their relationships with law enforcement, but at the same time the development of technology for law enforcement is billions. We also recognize that it is a dollar-sized industry.”
