An Australian regulator, after using new powers to make the tech giants share information about their methods, accused Apple and Microsoft of failing to preemptively scan users’ iCloud and OneDrive photos, videos, and other data storage on the companies’ cloud services and for not snooping on Apple’s FaceTime and Microsoft’s Skype and Teams conversations.
The e-Safety Commissioner, an office set up to protect internet users, said that after sending legal demands for information to some of the world’s biggest internet firms, the responses showed Apple and Microsoft did not proactively screen for child abuse material in their storage services, iCloud and OneDrive.
The two firms also confirmed they did not use any technology to detect live-streaming of child sexual abuse on video services Skype and Microsoft Teams, which are owned by Microsoft, and FaceTime, which is owned by Apple, the commissioner said in a report published on Thursday.
The responses overall were “alarming” and raised concerns of “clearly inadequate and inconsistent use of widely available technology to detect child abuse material and grooming”, commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a statement.
An Apple announcement a week ago that it would stop scanning iCloud accounts for child abuse, following pressure from privacy advocates, was “a major step backwards from their responsibilities to help keep children safe” Inman Grant said.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has been scanning every photo uploaded to the iCloud using image-matching technology (much like spam filters in email) to help find and report child exploitation since 2020.
American users who value their privacy should turn on Advanced Data Protection which end-to-end encryption for iCloud data.
This Australian “e-Safety Commissioner,” Julie Inman Grant, is attempting to eliminate personal privacy and the gain ability to snoop everyone using the ol’ Think of The Children™ trojan horse.
Think of The Children™. Whenever you hear that line of horseshit, look for ulterior motives.
Fear mongers: Those who use of fear, scare tactics, and emotional appeals in attempts to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. — MacDailyNews, September 30, 2014
The criminals will always be able to use end-to-end encryption. Measures like this hurt only law-abiding citizens by making it possible to invade privacy, conduct mass surveillance, and God only know what else. The criminals will have their privacy while law-abiding citizens will have their privacy stripped away. – MacDailyNews, February 2, 2020
This is not about this phone. This is about the future. And so I do see it as a precedent that should not be done in this country or in any country. This is about civil liberties and is about people’s abilities to protect themselves. If we take encryption away… the only people that would be affected are the good people, not the bad people. Apple doesn’t own encryption. Encryption is readily available in every country in the world, as a matter of fact, the U.S. government sponsors and funds encryption in many cases. And so, if we limit it in some way, the people that we’ll hurt are the good people, not the bad people; they will find it anyway. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 2016
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
See also:
• Apple brings end-to-end encryption to iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more – December 7, 2022
• FBI is ‘deeply concerned’ that they won’t be able to rifle through Apple users’ photos, videos, and other iCloud data – December 8, 2022
• How to set up Advanced Data Protection, end-to-end encryption for your iCloud data – December 14, 2022
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