iPhone maker Apple has just made a shocking turn of events by confirming how its approach to tackling explicit and child abuse materials, better known as CSAM scanning, could be abused.
The company highlights how repressive governments might use it for scanning ordeals such as plans related to political protests.
The Cupertino firm rejected any reasoning provided during that period. But one ironic twist did take center stage after a reply was put forward to the government of Australia recently.
Apple mentioned how it had planned to roll out on-device scan plans with the help of techniques used for digital fingerprinting.
Those fingerprints are a means to match certain pictures without any individual getting the chance to view them. They’re designed to be used in a very fuzzy manner to match certain pictures that were cropped or edited while giving rise to a small number of false positives.
To be a little more clear in this regard, Apple confirmed how its recent proposal was an approach designed to respect users’ privacy because scanning could be carried out by certain devices. This way, no one would see any of the images until several matches had been flagged in this regard.
The issue is more linked to repressive governments than anyone else, as confirmed by Apple. This was bound to be an issue in the future as it had great potential of being abused by a long list of such governments.
Meanwhile, digital fingerprints could be produced for any kind of material, not only CSAM. So far, there is no plan in place to prevent authoritarian governments from including more to-the-picture databases featuring all kinds of political-themed content.
Some tools were rolled out that targeted serious suspects that were forced to be adapted to highlight any that showed opposition to the government or any of its policies. In such cases, Apple would be finding itself helping repression or in some worse scenarios, worsening the already chaotic political crisis in which hundreds of activists are involved.
Apple says it would never allow this. But such promises were predicated on the iPhone maker who had the legal freedom to say no and that would not be the case. In places such as China, the Cupertino firm was forced on a legal basis to get rid of VPNs, news, or any other platforms. They would store the information on iCloud belonging to Chinese citizens across servers that were under the ownership of a firm controlled by the government.
When you look at reality, there was just no way that the tech giant could fulfill such promises about it not being in compliance with necessary requirements for processing databases supplied by the government including CSAM pictures.
This included matches for substance under the use of both critics and those protesting against such schemes. Clearly, it’s a serious U-turn of events that not many saw coming for obvious reasons.
Scanning certain content paves the way to carrying out surveillance on a larger scale. It would create the desire to look for other kinds of encrypted systems designed for generating messages through various content types.
Now, we’re seeing Apple enter quietly in the limelight in this regard and speak on the Australian government’s clauses of forcing tech firms to carry out scans for the CSAM so as one can imagine, it’s a slippery slope.
Apple fears surveillance tools like these could be modified to look for other kinds of content including an individual’s political, religious, and even reproductive activity.
Image: Digital Information World - AIgen
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The company highlights how repressive governments might use it for scanning ordeals such as plans related to political protests.
The Cupertino firm rejected any reasoning provided during that period. But one ironic twist did take center stage after a reply was put forward to the government of Australia recently.
Apple mentioned how it had planned to roll out on-device scan plans with the help of techniques used for digital fingerprinting.
Those fingerprints are a means to match certain pictures without any individual getting the chance to view them. They’re designed to be used in a very fuzzy manner to match certain pictures that were cropped or edited while giving rise to a small number of false positives.
To be a little more clear in this regard, Apple confirmed how its recent proposal was an approach designed to respect users’ privacy because scanning could be carried out by certain devices. This way, no one would see any of the images until several matches had been flagged in this regard.
The issue is more linked to repressive governments than anyone else, as confirmed by Apple. This was bound to be an issue in the future as it had great potential of being abused by a long list of such governments.
Meanwhile, digital fingerprints could be produced for any kind of material, not only CSAM. So far, there is no plan in place to prevent authoritarian governments from including more to-the-picture databases featuring all kinds of political-themed content.
Some tools were rolled out that targeted serious suspects that were forced to be adapted to highlight any that showed opposition to the government or any of its policies. In such cases, Apple would be finding itself helping repression or in some worse scenarios, worsening the already chaotic political crisis in which hundreds of activists are involved.
Apple says it would never allow this. But such promises were predicated on the iPhone maker who had the legal freedom to say no and that would not be the case. In places such as China, the Cupertino firm was forced on a legal basis to get rid of VPNs, news, or any other platforms. They would store the information on iCloud belonging to Chinese citizens across servers that were under the ownership of a firm controlled by the government.
When you look at reality, there was just no way that the tech giant could fulfill such promises about it not being in compliance with necessary requirements for processing databases supplied by the government including CSAM pictures.
This included matches for substance under the use of both critics and those protesting against such schemes. Clearly, it’s a serious U-turn of events that not many saw coming for obvious reasons.
Scanning certain content paves the way to carrying out surveillance on a larger scale. It would create the desire to look for other kinds of encrypted systems designed for generating messages through various content types.
Now, we’re seeing Apple enter quietly in the limelight in this regard and speak on the Australian government’s clauses of forcing tech firms to carry out scans for the CSAM so as one can imagine, it’s a slippery slope.
Apple fears surveillance tools like these could be modified to look for other kinds of content including an individual’s political, religious, and even reproductive activity.
Read next: Is Google Sunsetting Gmail In 2024? New Hoax Leaves Users Confused
