Apple Has Been Asked By Policy Groups To Abandon Plans To Inspect IMessages And Scan For Abused Images

Apple has been asked by policy groups to abandon plans to inspect iMessages and scan for abused images

In an open letter published on Thursday, more than 90 policy and human rights organizations from around the world urged Apple to abandon plans to scan children's messages for nudity and adult phones for images of child sex abuse and instead focus on other important issues.

According to the letter, which was first reported by Reuters, "Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material, we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have catastrophic consequences for many children."

The Center for Democracy & Technology, a non-profit organization based in the United States, organized the largest campaign to date against an encryption issue at a single company (CDT).

The impact of the changes in countries with different legal systems, including some that are already embroiled in heated debates over encryption and privacy, is a source of concern for some international signatories in particular.

According to Sharon Bradford Franklin, co-director of CDT's Security & Surveillance Project and co-director of the CDT's Security & Surveillance Project, "It is extremely disappointing and upsetting that Apple is taking this action because they have historically been a staunch supporter of encryption."

According to an Apple spokesman, the company addressed privacy and security concerns in a document released Friday that outlines why the scanning software's complex architecture should be resistant to attempts to subvert its operation.

Who are those that signed petition?

Among those who signed the petition were a number of organizations in Brazil, where courts have repeatedly barred Facebook's WhatsApp from decrypting messages in criminal investigations, and where the senate has passed a bill requiring traceability of messages, which would necessitate some form of marking on the content of messages. In India, a law of a similar nature was passed this year.

Our primary concern is the consequences of this mechanism, specifically how it could be applied to other situations and other businesses, according to Flavio Wagner, President of the Internet Society's independent Brazil chapter, which also participated in the agreement. “This represents a significant deterioration in the security of encryption.”

Other countries that signed the petition included India, Mexico, Germany, Argentina, Ghana, and Tanzania.

Apple, taken aback by the initial outcry following its announcement two weeks ago, has responded with a series of explanations and documents to argue that the risks of false detections are low.

Apple has stated that it will not comply with requests to broaden the image-detection system beyond images of children flagged by clearinghouses in multiple jurisdictions, though the company has not stated that it will withdraw from a market rather than comply with a court order.

Though the majority of the opposition has focused on device scanning, the coalition's letter also criticizes a proposed change to iMessage in family accounts, which would attempt to identify and blur nudity in children's messages, allowing them to view them only if their parents are notified of the change.

The signers expressed concern that the action could put children in intolerant homes or those seeking educational materials at risk. More broadly, they asserted that the change will render iMessage's end-to-end encryption inoperable, which Apple has steadfastly defended in other circumstances.

In Conclusion

As the letter points out, once this backdoor feature is implemented, governments could force Apple to notify users of objectionable images for reasons other than being sexually explicit and to detect images that are objectionable for other reasons.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Privacy International, and the Tor Project are among the organizations that have signed the petition.