Apple has revealed that it received 5,000 US government requests for customer data between 1 December 2012 and 31 May 2013, making it one of the most scrutinised tech companies by the NSA-run surveillance group last week revealed to be known as Project Prism.
Robberies and other civilian crimes are apparently the most common forms of request Apple has complied with, as well as missing children, the location of Alzheimer's patients and suicide prevention.
Apple has specifically stated that conversations held by users over iMessage and FaceTime are "protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them".
Apple states that even the company itself "cannot decrypt that data", let alone the US authorities.
"Apple has always placed a priority on protecting our customers' personal data, and we don't collect or maintain a mountain of personal details about our customers in the first place," the company reassured the public.
The company stated that it had never heard of Prism until 6 June 2013, when "news organisations asked us about it".
Like other tech companies who have spoken out about government access to information, Apple has said that the NSA has had no direct access to its servers, and that company complies only with requests that are legally valid.
