Vratislav Holub If you are one of our regular readers, then you certainly did not miss our two articles on the topic of Apple's new system for detecting photos depicting child abuse. With this step, Apple wants to prevent the spread of explicit children's content and to inform parents themselves about similar actions in time. But it has one huge catch. For this reason, all photos stored on iCloud will be automatically scanned within the device, which can be perceived as a huge invasion of privacy. What's worse is that a similar move comes from Apple, which has largely built its name on privacy.
The world-renowned whistleblower and former employee of the American CIA, Edward Snowden, who has considerable concerns about the system, also commented on this news. According to him, Apple is introducing a system for mass surveillance of almost the entire world without actually asking the public's opinion. But it is necessary to interpret his words correctly. The spread of child pornography and the abuse of children must of course be fought and appropriate tools should be introduced. But the risk here is created by the fact that if today a giant like Apple can scan practically all devices for the detection of child pornography, then in theory it can look for something completely different tomorrow. In extreme cases, privacy can be completely suppressed, or even political activism stopped.
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Of course, Snowden is not the only one who sharply criticizes Apple's actions. A non-profit organization also expressed its opinion Electronic Frontier Foundation, which deals with privacy in the digital world, freedom of expression and innovation itself. They immediately condemned the news from the Cupertino giant, to which they also added an appropriate justification. The system poses a huge risk of violating the privacy of all users. At the same time, this opens up space not only for hackers, but also for government organizations, which can disrupt the entire system and abuse it for their own needs. In their words, it is literally impossible build a similar system with 100% security. Apple growers and security experts also expressed their doubts.
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How the situation will develop further is understandably unclear for the time being. Apple is facing huge criticism at the moment, due to which it is expected to make an appropriate statement. At the same time, it is necessary to draw attention to an important fact. The situation may not be as dark as the media and leading personalities present it. For example, Google has been using a similar system for detecting child abuse since 2008, and Facebook since 2011. So this is nothing completely unusual. However, the Apple company is still strongly criticized, as it always presents itself as a protector of the privacy of its users. By taking similar steps, he could lose this strong position.
No matter how well-intentioned @Apple is rolling out mass surveillance to the entire world with this. Make no mistake: if they can scan for kiddie porn today, they can scan for anything tomorrow.
They turned a trillion dollars of devices into iNarcs— * without asking. * https://t.co/wIMWijIjJk
- Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 6
