Apple says it had nothing to do with leaked UDIDs

A few nights ago, a group of hackers known as AntiSec published a list of over 1 million Apple device IDs. The group says it obtained the UDIDs, and tons of other information, from the laptop of an FBI agent.

Yesterday, the FBI released a statement, saying that there was no evidence indicating that an FBI laptop was compromised, or that its agents collected the data. And today, Apple commented on the situation…

AllThingsD has received word from Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris regarding the leaked UDIDs. And not only does the company deny involvement, she says that they are working on getting rid of Device IDs all together.

“The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization. Additionally, with iOS 6 we introduced a new set of APIs meant to replace the use of the UDUD and will soon be banning the use of the UDID.”

Earlier this year, Apple started rejecting applications that used device IDs after evidence started surfacing that apps were misusing the data. With the right conditions, a device’s UDID can be used to track a user’s internet movements, as well as to access social networking accounts like Twitter and Facebook.

That being said, it sounds like the problem is going to disappear in iOS 6. But we’re still curious where all the Device IDs came from. If neither the FBI nor Apple had anything to do with them, how were they collected?

We might just find out. In its memo attached to the UDID leak, AntiSec said it wouldn’t answer any questions about the hack unless Gawker ran a photo on its front page of author Adrian Chen in a ballet tutu with a shoe on his head. And in case you missed it, both the site and Chen have complied with the demand.