Apple Goes From Waging Encryption War With FBI To Holding Hush-Hush Global Police Summits — An Evolving Relationship With Law Enforcement?

Apple Inc. AAPL has reportedly been secretly aiding law enforcement agencies in leveraging its products for surveillance purposes.

What Happened: In the last five years, Apple has conducted two “Global Police Summit” events gathering police agencies worldwide to discuss the best use of the tech giant’s products, reported Forbes on Thursday.

This revelation challenges the popular notion that Apple maintains a strained relationship with law enforcement, a belief rooted in its refusal to aid the FBI in hacking an iPhone associated with the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attacks.

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The tech behemoth has been hosting meetings at its Cupertino and Elk Grove campuses and launched undisclosed projects to assist law enforcement in using iPhones, Macs, Vision Pro, and CarPlay.

These summits, attended by delegates from nearly 50 global police departments, provided law enforcement with an opportunity to discuss their technology use in their operations, the report noted.

Apple has also been cultivating relationships with California law enforcement to encourage the use of its products in police and sheriff’s departments.

The report emerged a year after the last Global Police Summit and coincides with the exit of Gary Oldham, the Apple employee who led these initiatives.

Apple did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

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Why It Matters: In 2016, the FBI allegedly asked Apple to develop a new version of iOS that would disable security features to access data on an iPhone involved in the San Bernardino attack.

Tim Cook strongly opposed the request, citing concerns that creating such software would be too dangerous. He argued that creating a backdoor sets a precedent for undermining encryption, threatening the privacy of millions of users.

Today, several of Apple’s features play a significant role in assisting law enforcement, though some have also raised concerns as well.

In 2022, the ‘Find My’ feature helped police recover stolen AirPods, while in 2023, the NameDrop feature was misinterpreted by some departments.

Apple’s Crash Detection feature also contributed to the arrest of a drunk driver. However, other products have prompted concern—Apple’s AirTag has been misused for stalking, and the Vision Pro headset faced criticism from San Diego police for safety risks.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.