Apple plans to scan the US iPhone for child abuse images, draw applause from child protection groups but increase concern among several security researchers that the system can be misused by the government who wants to oversee their citizens.
Apple said the messaging application will use machine learning on the device to warn about sensitive content without making private communication that can be read by the company.
Apple tools call the “nervematch ” will detect the images known from child sexual harassment without decrypting people’s messages.
If it finds a match, the image will be reviewed by humans who can notify law enforcement if necessary.
But the researchers say the tool can occur Put into other purposes such as government supervision of dissidents or protesters.
Matthew Green, a security professor at Johns Hopkins University who previously posted his concern on Twitter, told Financial Times that Apple’s Move would “solve the dam would sue from everyone.
” Technology companies including Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others for years have shared “hash lists” of known children’s sexual abuse images.
Apple has also scan iCloud, which is not as the message is not encrypted end to end, for the image.
The company has been under pressure from the government and law enforcement to allow encrypted data surveillance.
Apple is one of the first big companies that embraces “end to end ‘encryption, where messages are randomly so that only the sender and recipient can read it.
However, law enforcement, however, has long been pressed for access to that information in to investigate crimes like Terrorism or child sexual exploitation.
“Apple protection expanded for children is a modifier of the game,” John Clark, President & CEO, the National Center for lost & exploited children, said in a statement.
“With so many people using products Apple, this new safety measures have the potential to save themselves for children being lived online and the terrible images circulated in child sexual abuse, ” Julia Cordua, CEO Thorn, said that Balance for Apple’s privacy ” Privacy needs “with digital security for children.
“Thorn, non-profit founded by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, use technology to help protect children from sexual harassment by identifying victims and working with technology platforms.