Apple Stops Weirdly Storing Data That Let Cops Spy On Signal Chats

Source: Slashdot

Background

Apple has fixed a bug that could cause parts of Signal notifications to remain stored on iPhones even after messages disappeared and the app was deleted. According to Ars Technica, “affected users concerned about push notifications can update their devices to stop what Apple characterized as ‘notifications marked for deletion’ that could be unexpectedly retained on the device.” Apple said the push notifications should never have been stored, but a “logging issue” failed to redact the data.

Discovery

404 Media flagged the issue after speaking to multiple people who attended a hearing where the FBI testified that it “was able to forensically extract copies of incoming Signal messages from a defendant’s iPhone, even after the app was deleted, because copies of the content were saved in the device’s push notification database.” The revelation was reported in an article that noted the case was “the first time authorities charged people for alleged ‘Antifa’ activities after President Trump designated the umbrella term a terrorist organization.”

The problem was first reported by 404 Media in a story about Apple unexpectedly storing push notifications displaying parts of encrypted messages for up to a month, even after the message was set to disappear and the app itself was removed from the device.

Apple’s Fix

Apple’s update stops the retention of “notifications marked for deletion.” Once the patch is installed, all inadvertently‑preserved notifications are deleted, and future notifications will not be preserved for deleted applications.

Signal’s Response

Signal posted that “we’re grateful to Apple for the quick action here, and for understanding and acting on the stakes of this kind of issue. It takes an ecosystem to preserve the fundamental human right to private communication.” The company added that after users update their devices, “no action is needed for this fix to protect Signal users on iOS. Once you install the patch, all inadvertently‑preserved notifications will be deleted and no forthcoming notifications will be preserved for deleted applications.”