Starting with iOS 8, according to Apple’s newly-updated privacy statement your photos, messages and attachments, email, contacts, call history, iTunes content, notes, and reminders are “placed under the protection of your passcode.” Apple cannot bypass your passcode, which means it does not really have anything to turn over to the government.
From the sound of it, this only applies to the information on your iPhone or iPad. However, Apply says 93% of the requests it gets from law enforcement are “device requests,” and most of those “come from an agency working on behalf of a customer who has requested assistance locating a stolen device.”
This is all good news, and it means that any client data you might have on an iPhone or iPad is pretty safe. As far as I can tell, however, it does not have much to do with information stored in the cloud. While that information may be safe on your device, the government (or a hacker) could potentially still get it from your cloud provider — even if that cloud provider is Apple.
Featured image: “Lock : Vector padlock icon flat design” from Shutterstock.