KickassTorrents shutdown shows Apple co-operates with authorities

US authorities seized the domains of one of KickassTorrents and shut it down . Artem Vaulin from Ukraine is the alleged owner, and he was arrested in Poland based on a complaint filed in Chicago. The charge was criminal copyright infringement. TorrentFreak reports that the incriminating evidence for the arrest was produced with the help of Apple, who provided the IP address information that Artem Vaulin used to make a legal iTunes purchase. He then used the same IP address to login to the Facebook page of KickassTorrents. This has led to speculation that maybe even Facebook supported the law enforcement officials. But wait, wasn’t Apple championing the protection of the data of its users, that too with Facebook ’s support? The encryption battle was a heated episode where Apple went toe to toe with the FBI over unlocking the phone of a mass shooting perpetrator in San Bernardino. Apple refused to create the tools necessary to unlock the terrorist’s iPhone. Tim Cook wrote an open letter explaining the stance of the company. The Government dropped it’s efforts at persuading Apple, after they managed to unlock the phone without Apple's help . Has Apple revealed it’s two-faced nature here? Does Apple have some kind of ulterior motive when it supports the US law enforcement authorities when it comes to the private data of pirates, but refuses to budge when it comes to the private data of terrorists? Apple’s law enforcement guidelines for government information requests offers some clues, on what information is available to it, and what information it makes available to law enforcement authorities on request. Well, it depends on the operating system version, and the kind of data that the authorities want access to. If the data is encrypted using a key that Apple does not possess, Apple has made it clear that it will not take any measures to extract that data. “For all devices running iOS 8.0 and later versions, Apple will not perform iOS data extractions as data extraction tools are no longer effective. The files to be extracted are protected by an encryption key that is tied to the user’s passcode, which Apple does not possess.” The data collected from Apple accounts, device registrations, and iTunes transactions, are however treated differently. Apple has clearly mentioned that it can, and does give access to enforcement authorities on request. In fact, it even mentions what kind of request is necessary to access this kind of information. “A search warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause is required for Apple to provide the specific content purchased or downloaded.” The difference is between cracking encrypted data stored on a user’s phone, for which Apple has no decryption key, and making available store transaction information, data which Apple has. In the San Bernardino case, Apple had provided law enforcement officials the data it had in it’s possession. Tech giants in silicon valley supported Apple in the way it handled the requests of the law enforcement officials. The owner of a major torrenting site should have known this. It is just so ironic that the alleged owner of a Torrent site was busted after legally downloading a song from a legitimate digital delivery service. This was an amateur mistake. Read the fine print. Limit your exposure. Sandbox your illegal pursuits. Hide behind seven proxies and Norton. Because if you are engaged in criminal activities, Apple and Facebook will co operate with law enforcement officials around the world.