Can Apple Really Turn Your iMessages Over to the Feds?

To distance itself from allegations of collaborating with the secret surveillance program PRISM, Apple issued a statement on Sunday night that denies it granted the National Security Agency direct access to its servers. The company went one step further: Apple claimed it couldn't turn over certain data to the U.S. government, even if it wanted to.

"Conversations which take place over iMessage and FaceTime are protected by end-to-end encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can see or read them," the statement reads. "Apple cannot decrypt that data."