After all of the revelations about just how much data our devices collect about us with and without our knowledge, the U.S. government seeking access to that data is not that surprising. But apparently foreign governments are also getting in on the fun, according to a U.S. Senator.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) addressed a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the country's top law enforcement officer to "permit" Apple (AAPL) -) and Google (GOOGL) -) to inform its customers that foreign governments are demanding information about the push notifications that go to their phones.
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"Apple and Google should be permitted to be transparent about the legal demands they receive, particularly from foreign governments," according to Wyden.
"These companies should be permitted to generally reveal whether they have been compelled to facilitate this surveillance practice, to publish aggregate statistics about the number of demands they receive, and unless temporarily gagged by a court, to notify specific customers about demands for their data."
Apple did not immediately return requests for comment, but the company did tell Axios that it is "committed to transparency" and that now that the cat is out of the bag, thanks to Wyden, "we are updating our transparency reporting to detail these kinds of requests."
Meanwhile, Google said that it already shares much of the information Wyden highlighted in his letter and that its transparency report aggregates all of the requests for user information that it receives.
Also, Google says that it requires a court order in order to comply with U.S.-based requests compelling the disclosure of push notification data, as well as other non-content information.
Apple's Push Notification service for iPhones and Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging for Android phones are the conduits through which apps push notifications to their users.
This way, the Senator's letter explains, Google and Apple receive metadata "detailing which app received a notification and when, as well as the phone associated Apple or Google account to which that notification was intended to be delivered."
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