Apple objects to the Australian proposal to force them and other tech companies to scan cloud services for Child Pornography
Although Apple was once on the side of scanning for known child abuse material in iCloud accounts, the company now warns that the Australian proposal to force companies to scan cloud services could lead to mass surveillance. Yes, Apple totally flipped from their original position until the backlash was big enough to force them to drop the project.
Today, The Guardian in the UK reports that Apple has warned an Australian proposal to force tech companies to scan cloud and messaging services for child-abuse material risks “undermining fundamental privacy and security protections” and could lead to mass surveillance with global repercussions.
Under two mandatory standards aimed at child safety released by the regulator last year, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, proposed that providers should detect and remove child-abuse material and pro-terror material “where technically feasible” – as well as disrupt and deter new material of that nature.
The regulator has stressed in an associated discussion paper it “does not advocate building in weaknesses or back doors to undermine privacy and security on end-to-end encrypted services."
In Apple’s submission to the proposals, provided to Guardian Australia, it said this would offer no protection, given the assurances were not explicitly included in the draft standards.
"eSafety claims the same protections for end-to-end encryption in the codes apply to the standards but this is not supported by any language to that effect," the submission said.
"We recommend that eSafety adopt a clear and consistent approach expressly supporting end-to-end encryption so that there is no uncertainty and confusion or potential inconsistency across codes and standards."
Apple also warned that a requirement for technology to scan cloud services for known child-abuse material would compromise the privacy and safety of every user.
"Scanning for particular content opens the door for bulk surveillance of communications and storage systems that hold data pertaining to the most private affairs of many Australians," Apple said.
"Such capabilities, history shows, will inevitably expand to other content types (such as images, videos, text, or audio) and content categories."
Inman Grant told Senate estimates last week that there were a "lot of technical issues [and] a lot of good feedback" in the 50 submissions received during the consultation on the proposal. For more, read the full report by The Guardian.
On this matter, also see our 2023 report titled "Apple, once a leader in Scanning Message Apps for Child Pornographic images, now joins a Group to Protect Encryption over Children."
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