Apple Addresses CSAM Detection Concerns, Will Consider Expanding System on Per-Country Basis

Apple this week announced that, starting later this year with iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, the company will be able to detect known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images stored in iCloud Photos, enabling Apple to report these instances to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a non-profit organization that works in collaboration with law enforcement agencies across the United States.

apple csam flow chart
The plans have sparked concerns among some security researchers and other parties that Apple could eventually be forced by governments to add non-CSAM images to the hash list for nefarious purposes, such as to suppress political activism.

"No matter how well-intentioned, Apple is rolling out mass surveillance to the entire world with this," said prominent whistleblower Edward Snowden, adding that "if they can scan for kiddie porn today, they can scan for anything tomorrow." The non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation also criticized Apple's plans, stating that "even a thoroughly documented, carefully thought-out, and narrowly-scoped backdoor is still a backdoor."

To address these concerns, Apple provided additional commentary about its plans today.

Apple's known CSAM detection system will be limited to the United States at launch, and to address the potential for some governments to try to abuse the system, Apple confirmed to MacRumors that the company will consider any potential global expansion of the system on a country-by-country basis after conducting a legal evaluation. Apple did not provide a timeframe for global expansion of the system, if such a move ever happens.

Apple also addressed the hypothetical possibility of a particular region in the world deciding to corrupt a safety organization in an attempt to abuse the system, noting that the system's first layer of protection is an undisclosed threshold before a user is flagged for having inappropriate imagery. Even if the threshold is exceeded, Apple said its manual review process would serve as an additional barrier and confirm the absence of known CSAM imagery. Apple said it would ultimately not report the flagged user to NCMEC or law enforcement agencies and that the system would still be working exactly as designed.

Apple also highlighted some proponents of the system, with some parties praising the company for its efforts to fight child abuse.

"We support the continued evolution of Apple's approach to child online safety," said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute. "Given the challenges parents face in protecting their kids online, it is imperative that tech companies continuously iterate and improve their safety tools to respond to new risks and actual harms."

Apple did admit that there is no silver bullet answer as it relates to the potential of the system being abused, but the company said it is committed to using the system solely for known CSAM imagery detection.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

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Top Rated Comments

dmx Avatar
50 months ago
This system is ripe for abuse and privacy creep over time.

Anyone who it would catch will just turn off iCloud photos anyway, defeating the purpose.

Apple should admit that they made a mistake and cancel the rollout.
Score: 156 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ScottishDuck Avatar
50 months ago
US government known not to abuse systems
Score: 100 Votes (Like | Disagree)
transpo1 Avatar
50 months ago
This is a horrendous idea with so many ways this tech could go wrong.

Limiting it to the U.S. is not a solution and it’s obtuse of Apple to think so. Apple needs to stop now. Get rid of the feature, both the iCloud and Messages versions. No one wants this.
Score: 87 Votes (Like | Disagree)
budafied Avatar
50 months ago

Apple's known CSAM detection system will be limited to the United States at launch, and to address the potential for some governments to try to abuse the system, Apple confirmed to MacRumors that the company will consider any potential global expansion of the system on a country-by-country basis after conducting a legal evaluation.
Oh, idk. I thought the US government was pretty ****ing dishonest when it comes to privacy. How did that get approved in the first place?

**** Apple for doing this.
Score: 84 Votes (Like | Disagree)
StrangeNoises Avatar
50 months ago
And when China, or Russia, or India, give them a big list of hashes they want to be notified of, or you don't get to sell phones in those countries any more?
Score: 83 Votes (Like | Disagree)
J___o___h___n Avatar
50 months ago
I’ve nothing to hide, but this just doesn’t seem right to me.

I’m not updating any existing device to iOS15 until this is roll-out is stopped. I don’t want my photos scanned and I don’t want it to happen to my children’s messages. I ensure my children are safe myself. There’s a level of trust and these sort of forced policies just don’t agree with me.
Score: 69 Votes (Like | Disagree)