Apple denies handing UDIDs over to FBI

As the issue of the leaked million of Apple device IDs by the AntiSec hacker group and the alleged existence of a list of over 12 million of those and other personal information belonging to the users gets bigger by the day, the question is will we ever definitely know from where that list was stolen?

The FBI has vehemently denied AntiSec’s claim that it was extracted from on of its laptops and that they ever had the information in question in their hands.

Apple has also issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that the agency has never requested this information from Apple, nor did Apple provided it to them or to any other organization.

“Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDID and will soon be banning the use of UDID,” Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris pointed out on Wednesday.

Assuming that both these statements are true, who was originally in possession of the list?

Developer Frederic Jacobs is trying to get to the bottom of this story and he has set up an online survey for users whose UDIDs have been published, asking them to share which apps they use on that iOS device, whether they installed an app for a specific social network, and whether they have recently visited the USA.

“An early pattern shows that everyone has been to the USA recently,” he commented the temporary results. “It does also seems like we can put Facebook and Twitter out of the investigation. Still waiting on more data to have a more founded statement.”