Controversial Apple Software Scans iPhones for Sexual Predators
A new set of Apple-created tools will scan iPhones and other devices for child pornography and explicit text messages and report users suspected of illicit behavior to authorities. Civil liberties advocates warn it will open the door to further abuses against innocent users.
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Civil liberties advocates warn that a new set of Apple-created tools to scan iPhones and other devices for child pornography and explicit text messages, and report users suspected of illicit behavior to authorities, threatens privacy, reports the Washington Post. The new software, which performs scans on its users’ devices without their knowledge or explicit consent, potentially puts innocent users in legal jeopardy, says the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) an online advocacy group.
The software uses a matching technique, where photos stored on iPhones will be scanned and then compared with known child pornography. Before a photo can be uploaded to iCloud, Apple’s online storage service, it will be given a “voucher” ensuring that it is not child pornography. Apple says its decision to scan the photos on a user’s device, and not Apple’s own servers, is a way of protecting user privacy. But EFF warns “such a system will break key promises of the messenger’s encryption itself and open the door to broader abuses” by unscrupulous law enforcement agencies and malicious actors seeking to siphon personal data from users.
