The fight against child abuse is very real, and major corporations are often trying their best to make it so that child exploitation no longer continues to be as prevalent as it currently is. Apple has tried to enter the ring as well by announcing that it might start scanning user photo libraries at random with an algorithm that is trained to detect material that might be indicative of child pornography or something similar to this type of thing.
However, it is important to note that a lot of industry experts have pushed back against this announcement. For starters, critics claim that this will not really do all that much to stem the tide of child abuse, and is an ineffective means of achieving this end all in all. Others have stated that this would be a clear violation of user privacy, and would not be in line with Apple’s attempts to position itself as some kind of a savior of user privacy online.
This resulted in a dip in Apple share prices, something that prompted Apple to delay its plans to release this feature. Apple claims that it will be tweaking the feature and making it more privacy conscious, but many are still concerned that this could result in an unparalleled era of privacy abuse that would be done in the name of protecting innocents but would eventually end up getting used for a wide variety of other unseemly uses. This would concerning on its own, but the fact that a company that claims to prioritize user privacy above all else is doing this means that there really is no limit to the kinds of problems that might end up getting caused along the way. Apple will have to think carefully before it decides on a course of action.
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However, it is important to note that a lot of industry experts have pushed back against this announcement. For starters, critics claim that this will not really do all that much to stem the tide of child abuse, and is an ineffective means of achieving this end all in all. Others have stated that this would be a clear violation of user privacy, and would not be in line with Apple’s attempts to position itself as some kind of a savior of user privacy online.
This resulted in a dip in Apple share prices, something that prompted Apple to delay its plans to release this feature. Apple claims that it will be tweaking the feature and making it more privacy conscious, but many are still concerned that this could result in an unparalleled era of privacy abuse that would be done in the name of protecting innocents but would eventually end up getting used for a wide variety of other unseemly uses. This would concerning on its own, but the fact that a company that claims to prioritize user privacy above all else is doing this means that there really is no limit to the kinds of problems that might end up getting caused along the way. Apple will have to think carefully before it decides on a course of action.
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