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Apple’s announcement that it would scan encrypted messages for evidence of child sexual abuse has revived debate on online encryption and privacy, raising fears the same technology could be used for government surveillance.
The iPhone maker said its initiative would “help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of child sexual abuse material.”
The move represents a major shift for Apple, which has until recently resisted efforts to weaken its encryption that prevents third parties from seeing private messages.
Apple argued in a technical paper that the technology developed by cryptographic experts “is secure, and is expressly designed to preserve user privacy.”
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The company said it will have limited access to the violating images which would be flagged to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization.
Nonetheless, encryption and private specialists warned the tool could be exploited for other purposes, potentially opening a door to mass surveillance.
