Apple is delaying its controversial plan to use iPhones to combat online child pornography amid concerns the same system could be abused for surveillance.
Apple was originally slated to roll out the anti-child sexual abuse material system later this year with iOS 15. Now it wants to spend “the coming months” refining the technology, citing the critical feedback from the public.
"Last month we announced plans for features intended to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material. Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
Apple developed the controversial system to help crack down on online child pornography stored over iCloud accounts. But rather than scan Apple’s own servers for the content, the company has been proposing a different approach that relies on using the consumer’s own iPhone to flag the child porn from being uploaded to iCloud.
According to Apple, the company’s proposal doesn’t involve scanning millions of iPhones for child porn. Instead, the technology is merely focused on matching an uploaded photo to iCloud with known images of child sexual abuse material already indexed in a national database. If the system detects an iCloud Photos account has at least 30 suspected child sexual abuse images stored, Apple will then investigate, which could lead to the company notifying the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Still, privacy advocates have been alarmed with the plan from the start. They’re concerned the same technology could be prone to errors, or expanded and abused to conduct wide scale surveillance over iPhones.
“We’ve had personal computers for decades and there has never been a mandate to scan the private content of all desktops, laptops, or phones globally for unlawful content,” said Will Cathcart, the head of the Facebook-owned WhatsApp, last month.
In response, Apple has been spending the past weeks defending its plan and elaborating on the guardrails it’s put in place to prevent the anti-child porn system from being abused. However, it seems the company has decided it’s better to hit pause than risk alienating the public.