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Apple Surveillance Software Overview:
- Who: More than 90 civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are asking Apple to drop plans to install software designed to detect sexually explict material on children’s phones.
- Why: The civil rights groups say the software could be used to surveil other users and that the company could face pressure from governments around the world to use the technology to scan images for the governments’ own search benefits
- Where: The software would be installed on devices with iOS 15 all around the world.
More than 90 civil rights organizations worldwide have signed a letter to Apple, asking the tech giant to drop its plans to install new surveillance software in its devices.
The new surveillance software has been designed to prevent child sexual abuse by alerting parents to sexually explicit material in their childrens’ phones.
Starting with an update to iOS 15 coming this year, the Messages app will scan for explicit photos on kids’ accounts and will scan iCloud uploads for sexual abuse material, Washington Post reports.
However, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union say the unintended effects will be “disastrous consequences for many children.”
“We support efforts to protect children and stand firmly against the proliferation of [child sexual abuse material,” the letter to Apple said. “But the changes that Apple has announced put children and its other users at risk both now and in the future.”
The surveillance technology in the new devices would work by creating paired child and parent accounts, and then scanning the child’s incoming and outgoing messages and photos for sexually explicit material.
If anything deemed to be sexually explicit was flagged coming in or out of a child’s account, the parent’s account would be notified.
However, the civil rights groups say the software could be used to surveil other users, too. There is a fear that the company will face pressure from governments around the world to use the technology to scan images for the governments’ own search benefits.
The groups also fear for children with abusive parents, saying algorithms supposed to weed out sexually explicit material are “notoriously unreliable” and could threaten a child’s wellbeing, especially if the child is LGBTQ+ and is not able to be safely out with their parents.
The letter urges Apple to “abandon those changes and to reaffirm the company’s commitment to protecting its users with end-to-end encryption.”
Apple told the Washington Post notifications would only apply to children under 13 using accounts with both family sharing and communication safety notifications turned on.
It also said, if governments tried to force it to add non-child sexual abuse images to its scanning capability, it would “refuse such demands.”
Despite this, Apple has a history of complying with local laws in countries such as China, where it has blocked privacy-protecting apps there and moved its servers inside the country at the government’s request, Washington Post reports.
Apple has faced allegations of misconduct from workers, consumers, and human rights advocates. As a result, several lawsuits against Apple have been filed following a variety of allegations related to the use of child labor, violation of privacy laws, faulty products, and more.
Click here to learn more about the latest Apple class action lawsuit updates, how to file a potential Apple class action settlement claim, and learn about the Apple news updates to discover if there are any Apple settlements or class action investigations that you may be able to join.
What do you think of this potential software update? Let us know in the comments!
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