Apple promotes privacy, but when it comes to practicing what it preaches, the tech giant seemingly is falling short in places like China and South Australia.
Under the guise of scanning for sexually explicit material shared by users over its platforms, Crikey noted that Apple allegedly is proposing a high-tech way to peek inside messages in South Australia. The system is known as the CSAM detection system and is increasing concerns that law enforcement could cite the laws to urge Apple to tap into this capability, according to CNBC.
“The infrastructure needed to roll out Apple’s proposed changes makes it harder to say that additional surveillance is not technically feasible,” Electronic Frontier Foundation General Counsel Kurt Opsahl told CNBC.
Moreover, Apple in recent years has agreed to scrap a plan to encrypt iCloud backups and has agreed to store the data of Chinese users. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has been a vocal critic of Apple’s plan to also scan the phones of U.S. customers for child pornography.
“What Apple is showing with their announcement last week is that there are technical weaknesses that they are willing to build in,” CDT project director Emma Llanso told CNBC. “It seems so out of step from everything that they had previously been saying and doing.”
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Apple set up its CSAM system in China, drawing the attention of critics, who worry that economic pressures could lead the company to acquiesce to government requests. The New York Times reported that a fifth of Apple’s sales are generated in China, and Princeton researchers Jonathan Mayer and Anunay Kulshrestha told Forbes the system is dangerous.
“China is Apple’s second-largest market, with probably hundreds of millions of devices. What stops the Chinese government from demanding Apple scan those devices for pro-democracy materials?” the researchers asked, according to the Forbes report.
The moves in other parts of the world, including China, seemingly are in opposition to Apple’s commitment to privacy. On its website, it reminds users that “you control … your information.”
Forbes also reported that a company created by Apple and owned by the government in Guizhou legally owns Chinese iCloud data and users must agree that the company can access data stored on the service.
While China dominates most headlines, The Atlantic reported that Apple seemingly bent its privacy pledge again when it allowed the South Australian government to develop and use an app to enforce quarantine measures during the pandemic.