London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jul 10, 2025

Apple’s new ‘child-safety’ features face fresh challenge over censorship & privacy from over 90 rights groups

Apple’s new ‘child-safety’ features face fresh challenge over censorship & privacy from over 90 rights groups

Apple’s controversial plan to scan user photos and conversations for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) faces renewed criticism after rights groups warned it would “censor protected speech”, threaten privacy and endanger children.

In a letter published on the Center for Democracy and Technology website, a coalition of more than 90 groups from around the world urged Apple CEO Tim Cook to drop plans to introduce the surveillance feature – known as a CSAM hash – to detect child pornographic imagery stored on the iCloud.

The letter, published on Thursday, points to the use of “notoriously unreliable” machine learning algorithms to scan for sexually explicit images in the ‘Messages’ service on iOS devices. It notes that this could result in alerts that “threaten the safety and well-being” of young people with abusive parents.

“iMessages will no longer provide confidentiality and privacy to those users through an end-to-end encrypted messaging system in which only the sender and intended recipients have access to the information sent,” the groups warned.

They added that the technology could also open the door to “enormous pressure” and legal compulsions from various governments to scan for images deemed “objectionable” such as protests, human rights violations and even “unflattering images” of politicians.

Signatories to the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Access Now, Privacy International, and the Tor Project. Besides, a number of overseas groups have added their concerns about the policy’s impact on countries with different legal systems.

An Apple spokesman told Reuters the company had addressed privacy and security concerns earlier. Last week, it released a document detailing why the scanning software’s complex architecture allowed it to resist attempts at abusing it.

Earlier this month, a separate letter posted on GitHub and signed by privacy and security experts, including former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, condemned the “privacy-invasive content scanning technology”. It also warned that the policy “threatens to undermine fundamental privacy protections” for users, under the guise of child protection.

Other concerns have been raised about the possibility of “false positives” in the hash-scanning feature, which looks for an image’s ‘hash’ – a string of letters and numbers that are unique to the image – and matches it to databases provided by child protection agencies like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).


Although a recent Apple FAQ claimed the likelihood of a false positive “less than one in one trillion [incorrectly flagged accounts] per year”, researchers reported the first case of “hash collision” – where the feature identified two completely different images as producing the same hash – this week.

According to TechCrunch, “hash collisions” are a “death knell” for systems relying on encryption.

However, the tech news outlet said Apple downplayed the concerns in a press call and argued that it had protections in place – including human moderators reviewing flagged incidents before they are reported to law enforcement – to protect against the false positive issue.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Severe Heatwave Claims 2,300 Lives Across Europe
NVIDIA Achieves Historic Milestone as First Company Valued at $4 Trillion
Declining Beer Consumption Signals Cultural Shift in Germany
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of X After Two Years
US Imposes New Tariffs on Brazilian Exports Amid Political Tensions
Azerbaijan and Armenia are on the brink of a historic peace deal.
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Weinstein Victim’s Lawyer Says MeToo Movement Still Strong
U.S. Enacts Sweeping Tax and Spending Legislation Amid Trade Policy Shifts
Football Mourns as Diogo Jota and Brother André Silva Laid to Rest in Portugal
Labour Expected to Withdraw Support for Special Needs Funding Model
Leaked Audio Reveals Tory Aide Defending DEI Record
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
London Stock Exchange Faces Historic Low in Initial Public Offerings
A new online platform has emerged in the United Kingdom, specifically targeting Muslim men seeking virgin brides
Trump Celebrates Independence Day with B-2 Flyover and Signs Controversial Legislation
Boris Johnson Urges Conservatives to Ignore Farage
SNP Ordered to Update Single-Sex Space Guidance Within Days
Starmer Set to Reject Calls for Wealth Taxes
Stolen Century-Old Rolls-Royce Recovered After Hotel Theft
Macron Presses Starmer to Recognise Palestinian State
Labour Delayed Palestine Action Ban Over Riot Concerns
Swinney’s Tax Comments ‘Offensive to Scots’, Say Tories
High Street Retailers to Enforce Bans on Serial Shoplifters
Music Banned by Henry VIII to Be Performed After 500 Years
Steve Coogan Says Working Class Is Being ‘Ethnically Cleansed’
Home Office Admits Uncertainty Over Visa Overstayer Numbers
JD Vance Questions Mandelson Over Reform Party’s Rising Popularity
Macron to Receive Windsor Carriage Ride in Royal Gesture
Labour Accused of ‘Hammering’ Scots During First Year in Power
BBC Head of Music Stood Down Amid Bob Vylan Controversy
Corbyn Eyes Hard-Left Challenge to Starmer’s Leadership
London Tube Trains Suspended After Major Fire Erupts Nearby
Richard Kemp: I Felt Safer in Israel Under Attack Than in the UK
Cyclist Says Police Cited Human Rights Act for Riding No-Handed
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Musk Battles to Protect Tesla Amid Trump Policy Threats
Air France-KLM Acquires Majority Stake in Scandinavian Airlines
UK Educators Sound Alarm on Declining Child Literacy
Shein Fined €40 Million in France Over Misleading Discounts
Brazil’s Lula Visits Kirchner During Argentina House Arrest
Trump Scores Legislative Win as House Passes Tax Reform Bill
Keir Starmer Faces Criticism After Rocky First Year in Power
DJI Launches Heavy-Duty Coaxial Quadcopter with 80 kg Lift Capacity
U.S. Senate Approves Major Legislation Dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Largest Healthcare Fraud Takedown in U.S. History Announced by DOJ
×