Strategy to identify porn crosses the line
Beginning this fall, one billion iPhones will get a new version of a proprietary operating system (iOS 15). Apple and child safety experts – specifically the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) – have been working together on an innovative plan to limit the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM)… “kiddy porn.” As the New York Post notes, “Law enforcement has long pressured the company for access to information to investigate crimes such as terrorism or child sexual exploitation.” Most tech service providers (including an alliance of Microsoft and Facebook) also work with the NCMEC. They implement scanning for CSAM, but importantly, scanning is conducted on their cloud platforms – their property. What’s unusual about the Apple solution is their AI-driven scanning will take place down on your device. Privacy experts suggest this may have the trappings of a surveillance tool.
Since details of the innovative solution surfaced, experts have been at a loss to see how its implementation won’t do more harm than good. According to the privacy watchdog EFF, “All it would take to widen the narrow backdoor that Apple is building is an expansion of the parameters to look for additional types of content… that’s a fully built system that enables…” arbitrary authoritarian censorship.
Consternation gave way to alarm, and on August 19th, an open letter from 90 some civic organizations was sent to Apple. That weekend, a petition urging Apple to about-face gathered 25,000 signatures. 9to5Mac, a one-stop Apple showcase, then spun up a survey… 79% of respondents think the new initiative is either dangerous or too risky. In a detailed summary of expert opinion, Ryan Chiavetta of the International Association of Privacy Professionals concludes, “No one is arguing Apple is not pursuing a worthwhile goal. Far from it. However, the debate about whether its device scanning initiative is a step too far will likely continue in the days and weeks ahead.”
At a recent industry conference in Las Vegas, a banner proclaiming the superiority of Apple’s commitment to privacy unfurled… “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.” Privacy advocates apparently expect Apple to keep that promise.
missingkids.org netsmartz.org nsteens.org kidsmartz.org
eff.org epic.org cdt.org
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