Edward Snowden protests against Apple’s new feature that wants to help detect possible child sexual abuse in photos
Apple has always wanted to protect users, their privacy and their data. In recent years, things have accelerated. Good thing for the general public. But not always. Some features are controversial.
This is the case of the latest, the analysis of photos to fight against child pornography in particular. A function that Edward Snowden castigate today.
Edward Snowden protests against Apple’s new feature
Recently, the Cupertino company announced the upcoming arrival of a new photo analysis feature on its iPhone. The purpose of this feature is to scan the photos on the device to detect possible sexual abuse of children. A very good and noble idea, on paper, as it would make it easier for the authorities to track down the perpetrators.
Who wants to help detect possible child sexual abuse in the photos
That being said, many voices have been raised regarding this feature, arguing that Apple is very close to crossing a line that could have huge consequences. Former NSA consultant Edward Snowden is among those who castigate the new feature, saying that, however well-intentioned it is, this is no more and no less than Apple deploying a mass surveillance tool in the whole world.
No matter how well-intentioned, @Apple is rolling out mass surveillance to the entire world with this. Make no mistake: if they can scan for kiddie porn today, they can scan for anything tomorrow.
They turned a trillion dollars of devices into iNarcs—*without asking.* https://t.co/wIMWijIjJk
– Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 6, 2021
And the whistleblower is not the only one who shares this point of view. Others have expressed similar reasoning, and the same concerns. This is the case of Daniel Bostic, who suggests that while this could indeed be used to identify photos of child sexual abuse, there can be no guarantee that governments do not use this system to identify anti-government photos.
No one is defending explicit pictures of minors but this is category 5 insane.
How long until this is used to scan your phone for anti-government photos?
How long till authorities in the middle east use this to track down LGBT people?
How easy will it be to frame someone? https://t.co/tmFIrTTBH2
— Daniel Bostic (@debostic) August 5, 2021
While some of these views are quite valid, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac says social networks have been doing this for many years, and also cloud photo storage services. In any case, it is a new point of contention in the camp of Apple, the American giant which has stood up as a great defender of user privacy for many years.
If the new Apple photo scanning stuff was looking at any and all photos stored on your device, I think there’d be somewhat of an ethical debate to be had. But it’s just applied to iCloud Photos, which makes it no different than any other major web service or social network.
– Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) August 5, 2021