A method promulgated by Apple Inc. and the European Union to scan people\u2019s digital storage repositories for evidence of child pornography and other illegal content is a \u201cdangerous technology\u201d that can\u2019t be implemented in a way that accomplishes the dual feat of preserving users\u2019 privacy while helping government agencies conduct investigations, a group of prominent cryptographers and other security experts wrote in a report published Friday.<\/p>\n
The 46-page\u00a0report<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0counts among its 14 authors pioneers in encryption software.<\/p>\n It outlines, in detail, what the authors deem the numerous risks of a technique called \u201cclient-side scanning,\u201d which was at the heart of a controversy that erupted when Cupertino, California-based Apple announced a\u00a0plan<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in August to scan users\u2019 iCloud Photos accounts for sexually explicit images of children and then report instances to relevant authorities.<\/p>\n Apple later\u00a0postponed<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0those plans amid the backlash. The New York Times previously reported on the experts\u2019 concerns.<\/p>\n The authors of the new report wrote that the method \u201cby its nature creates serious security and privacy risks for all society while the assistance it can provide for law enforcement is at best problematic,\u201d citing the \u201cmultiple ways in which client-side scanning can fail, can be evaded and can be abused.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPlainly put, it is a dangerous technology,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if deployed initially to scan for child sex-abuse material, content that is clearly illegal, there would be enormous pressure to expand its scope.”<\/p>\n “We would then be hard-pressed to find any way to resist its expansion or to control abuse of the system.\u201d<\/p>\n A method promulgated by Apple Inc. and the European Union to scan people\u2019s digital storage repositories for evidence of child pornography and other illegal content is a \u201cdangerous technology\u201d that can\u2019t be implemented in a way that accomplishes the dual feat of preserving users\u2019 privacy while helping government agencies conduct investigations, a group of prominent cryptographers and other security experts wrote in a report published Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":408858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[605,73366,73368,607],"class_list":["post-418620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-apple","tag-child-abuse","tag-child-protection","tag-icloud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418622,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418620\/revisions\/418622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Why Facebook\u2019s leaked blacklist only had four South African organisations<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"