In mid-2021, Apple announced a series of measures aimed at protecting minors using its devices. One of the proposals was to scan iPhone photos for child abuse material. After more than a year of criticism, Cupertino has cancelled its initiative as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The news, of course, is somewhat surprising, as Apple had been adamant about moving forward despite complaints from its users. It was even reiterative in making it clear that photo scanning would always occur within the device, not on external servers. However, this was not enough to calm the waters.
Now, instead of scanning iPhone photos, the company will devote efforts to help prevent child abuse situations through the very security of its devices and services. Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of software, stated the following to the aforementioned media outlet:"Child sexual abuse can be prevented before it happens… That’s where we’re putting our energy in the future"
It is for this reason that, earlier today, Apple announced Advanced Data Protection, which is basically the expansion of end-to-end encryption to almost all of the information you store in iCloud. Previously, the service only offered this level of security on 14 categories of data, but with this update it rises to 23.
Among the information that will benefit from end-to-end encryption are, precisely, photos. Also reminders, notes, messages and even the backups of your iOS device. However, iCloud Mail, Contacts and Calendar will remain without the aforementioned encryption, as these operate together and encrypting them would break their interoperability.
Advanced Data Protection, however, will initially be available only in the United States, while users in other countries will be able to take advantage of it at some point in the future 2023. Finally, you should know that end-to-end encryption will not be enabled by default in the added categories. Therefore, it must be enabled manually.
Now, end-to-end encryption could also play against Apple in specific situations. such as what? When authorities request access to device information during an investigation, for example. However, Apple does not plan to give in even in these types of cases. Ultimately, keeping customer data secure has big implications for our overall security, Federighi commented.
It has been shown in the past that Apple, no matter what government authority is approached, will not help access protected data on a device. You can ask the FBI which had to resort to hackers to unlock the San Bernardino bomber’s iPhone. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had to fork out $900,000 because the company refused to cooperate.
Apple had just launched nudity alerts on iMessage in Spain; which also relied on analyzing iPhone images to detect inappropriate content for minors. The feature is designed so that no indication of nudity detection leaves the device. Apple has no access to the messages and no notifications are sent to parents or anyone else, mentioned those led by Tim Cook.
