Apple has been criticised over a new system (CSAM) that searches for child sexual abuse material on US users’ devices.

 

The technology looks for matches to known CSAMs before the image is uploaded to iCloud Photos. However, there are concerns that authoritarian governments could use the technology to spy on their citizens (the Israeli company that makes the Pegasus spy software has been suspected of the same, not without reason.)

Apple’s defence is that new versions of iOS and iPadOS – to be released later this year – will “help limit the spread of CSAM online with new applications of cryptography, while also taking care to protect user privacy”.

The system will alert you immediately if it finds child pornography, which a human can manually review. They can then take steps to block the user’s account and report the incident to law enforcement. The company says the new technology offers “significant” privacy benefits over existing techniques – as Apple only learns about users’ photos if their iCloud account contains a known collection of child sexual abuse material.

 

WhatsApp has also weighed in

 

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart called Apple’s move “very worrying”. According to him, the system “could very easily be used to scan private content for anything they or a government decides they want to control. Countries where they sell iPhones have different definitions of what is acceptable,” the company executive argued.

Cathcart wrote on Twitter that WhatsApp’s system for handling child sexual abuse material has reported more than 400,000 cases to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children without breaking encryption.

I read the information Apple put out yesterday and I'm concerned. I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world.

People have asked if we'll adopt this system for WhatsApp. The answer is no.

— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) August 6, 2021

But how can children be looked after without breaking the encryption? Or should the encryption be restricted to combat child abuse?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, has also criticised the move, saying it is “a fully established system, but one that is waiting for outside pressure to make even the slightest change”.

But some politicians have welcomed Apple’s development. UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said it was time for others, particularly Facebook, to follow suit. US Senator Richard Blumenthal also praised Apple’s move, calling it “welcome, innovative and bold”. “It shows that we can protect children and our basic privacy rights,” he added.

Forrás: BBC News