Following the backlash that came on the heels of the announcement that Apple would be introducing a CSAM scanning feature that would scan the photos of its users, the company announced that they would be delaying the rollout. The feature was originally meant to be released alongside iOS 15, but has since been pushed back.However, it seems that delay isn’t good enough for some. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has since penned a blog in which they are urging the company to drop the feature entirely. Now, it should be noted that no one is against the scanning of CSAM. In fact, Apple’s plans are actually a good thing that can aid the fight against individuals or groups who spread such content.
However, the issue here is that if Apple can scan your photos for CSAM content, what’s stopping governments from introducing their own hashes that would scan for other things? Arguments have been brought up where some fear that the tool could be abused to scan for other kinds of images that could be used to identify political opposition, dissidents, minority groups, and more.
The EFF notes that it’s good that Apple is listening to the concerns of the public, but still think that ultimately dropping their plans is the way to go.
”EFF is pleased Apple is now listening to the concerns of customers, researchers, civil liberties organizations, human rights activists, LGBTQ people, youth representatives, and other groups, about the dangers posed by its phone scanning tools. But the company must go further than just listening, and drop its plans to put a backdoor into its encryption entirely.”
Filed in . Read more about Legal and Privacy. Source: eff.org