U.S. sought statistics from 15 Apple gadgets in closing four months

Courtroom records released on Tuesday display the U.S. Justice department has inside the final four months sought court orders to pressure Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to help investigators extract facts from 15 devices in instances throughout the us of a.

The disclosure comes amid a heated dispute between Apple and federal investigators over get right of entry to to a locked iPhone belonging to one of the killers in December's mass-taking pictures in San Bernardino, California.

In a letter unsealed on Tuesday addressed to a federal decide in Brooklyn, ny, overseeing one such case, Apple stated it had obtained requests on the grounds that October to help law enforcement in gaining access to 13 different gadgets.

Prosecutors stated they were privy to a fifteenth case filed in Massachusetts, in their own letter filed late on Monday in advance of the unsealing of Apple's Feb. 17 listing of instances.

The ones cases consist of one announced closing week wherein a federal magistrate decide ordered Apple to unlock the iPhone belonging to one of the killers inside the San Bernardino shooting, which has escalated right into a excessive-publicity showdown among Apple and the U.S. Federal Bureau of research.

In line with Apple's letter, the generation employer has objected to presenting law enforcement assistance with reference to at least 12 of the 15 gadgets thus far.

The letter become addressed to U.S. magistrate decide James Orenstein, who seeing that October has been weighing whether to order Apple to provide government get right of entry to to statistics on a locked iPhone in a narcotics-associated case.

Prosecutors earlier said that earlier than the Brooklyn dispute emerged, Apple had given that 2008 received 70 court docket orders requiring it provide similar help to which it complied with out objection.

In evaluation to the San Bernardino case, most of the cases indexed by way of Apple and the Justice department seem to contain iPhones the use of an older Apple running system, which has fewer security obstacles to surmount.

The Justice branch on Friday filed a movement seeking to compel Apple to conform with a choose's order to unencumber an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, portraying the tech large's refusal as a "advertising and marketing strategy."

Apple leader govt Tim cook has refused to achieve this, and sent a letter to personnel Monday morning making clear the corporation's hardline stance refusing to make software program to liberate the telephone addresses broader issues, no longer only a unmarried device related to a grisly attack.(This tale corrects headline in paragraphs one, three and 6 to devices, from iPhones)