Apple Joins Opposition to Encrypted Message Scanning 2023
Apple has criticized provisions in the Online Safety Bill that might be used to require encrypted messaging services like as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal to check messages for child abuse content.
Its intervention comes after 80 organizations and technology professionals wrote to Technology Minister Chloe Smith, pushing her to reconsider the powers. According to Apple, the measure should be changed to protect encryption.According to the authorities, corporations must prevent child abuse on their platforms.End-to-end encryption (E2EE) prevents anyone other than the sender and receiver from reading the message.
The technology employed in apps such as WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage, according to police, the government, and several high-profile child safety charities, inhibits law enforcement and the corporations themselves from identifying the distribution of child sexual abuse content. “End-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats,” Apple stated in a statement.
“It also assists ordinary citizens in defending themselves against surveillance, identity theft, fraud, and data breaches.” The Online Safety Bill poses a major danger to this protection, potentially putting UK residents at risk.”Apple requests that the measure be amended to protect robust end-to-end encryption for the benefit of all.”
According to the government, “companies should only implement end-to-end encryption if they can simultaneously prevent abhorrent child sexual abuse on their platforms.”We will continue to collaborate with them to find ways to stop the dissemination of child sexual abuse material while protecting user privacy.”
The Online Safety Bill, which is now being debated in Parliament, includes provisions that would allow the communications regulator, Ofcom, to direct platforms to employ approved technology to scan the contents of messages.According to the government, these powers would be utilized only as a “last resort, and only when stringent privacy safeguards have been met.”Recently, Home Office ministers have been harshly critical of Facebook’s deployment of messaging technology. Apple has criticized provisions in the Online Safety Bill that might be used to require encrypted messaging services like as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal to check messages for child abuse content.
Its intervention comes after 80 organizations and technology professionals wrote to Technology Minister Chloe Smith, pushing her to reconsider the powers.According to Apple, the measure should be changed to protect encryption.According to the authorities, corporations must prevent child abuse on their platforms. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) prevents anyone other than the sender and receiver from reading the message.
Police, the government, and some well-known child safety charities claim that technology employed in apps like WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage inhibits law enforcement from discovering the transmission of child sexual abuse material and the corporations themselves from doing so. Apple, however, claimed in a statement that “end-to-end encryption is a critical capability that protects the privacy of journalists, human rights activists, and diplomats.”Additionally, it aids regular people in protecting themselves against data breaches, fraud, identity theft, and monitoring.
This safeguard is seriously threatened by the Online Safety Bill, which may increase risks for UK citizens.Apple requests that the government change the law to safeguard reliable end-to-end encryption for everyone’s benefit.However, according to the government, “companies should only implement end-to-end encryption if they can simultaneously prevent heinous child sexual abuse on their platforms.”
“We will keep collaborating with them to look for ways to stop the dissemination of content containing child sexual abuse while protecting user privacy.” The Online Safety Bill, which is now being debated in Parliament, contains provisions that might give the communications regulator Ofcom the authority to order platforms to scan the contents of messages using approved technologies.
According to the government, this authority would only be exercised “as a last resort, and only when stringent privacy safeguards have been met.” Home Office ministers have recently been very critical of Facebook’s messaging technology roll-out as well. Many messaging services, including Signal and WhatsApp, have already assured the BBC that they will steadfastly refuse to compromise the confidentiality of their encrypted communications systems under any circumstances.In February, Signal declared that, in the event that its encrypted messaging app’s privacy had to be compromised, it would “walk” away from the UK. According to Apple’s announcement, some of the most popular encrypted apps are now against this provision of the bill.
The government asserts that technology advancements could make it possible to scan the contents of encrypted texts for evidence of child abuse. According to many IT experts, the only way to accomplish that would be to install client-side scanning software, which would examine communications on the phone or computer before they are sent. According to critics, this would seriously jeopardize the confidentiality of messages. After receiving criticism, Apple abandoned plans to check iPhone photos for inappropriate content before uploading them to the cloud in 2021. It has now made it quite apparent that it opposes any action that compromises end-to-end encryption’s level of privacy.
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