Apple, iPhone, Photos and Child Safety: What’s Happening and Should You Worry?

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The privacy issues raised by Apple with its devices.

Andrew Hoyle / CNET

Apple has long presented itself as a security bulwark and as one of the few tech companies that truly cares about user privacy. But new technology designed to help an iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer detect child exploitation images and videos stored on those devices has sparked a heated debate about the truth behind Apple’s promises.

On August 5, Apple announced a new feature built into upcoming iOS 15, iPad OS 15, WatchOS 8, and MacOS Monterey software updates designed to detect if someone has child exploitation images or videos stored on their device. It will do this by converting images into unique pieces of code, known as hashes, based on what they represent. The hashes are then checked against a known child exploitation content database maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If a certain number of matches are found, Apple is notified and may investigate further.

Apple claimed to have developed this system to protect people’s privacy by scanning the phone and launching alarms only if a certain number of matches are found. But privacy experts, who agree that fighting child exploitation is a good thing, fear Apple’s moves open the door to wider uses that could, for example, endanger political dissidents and other innocent people.

“Even if you believe Apple will not allow these tools to be misused, there is still a lot to worry about,” tweeted Matthew Green, a Johns Hopkins University professor who has worked on cryptographic technologies.

I spent the day trying to figure out if Apple’s news is more benign than I thought, and not. It is definitely worse.

Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) August 5, 2021

Apple’s new feature, and the concern surrounding it, represent an important debate on the company’s commitment to privacy. Apple has long promised that its devices and software are designed to protect the privacy of its users. The company even dramatized that with an announcement it hung just outside the convention hall of the Consumer Electronics Show 2019, which read “What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone”.

“At Apple, we believe that privacy is a fundamental human right,” Apple CEO Tim Cook frequently said.

Stay up to date on the latest news, reviews and tips on iPhone, iPad, Mac, services and software.

Apple’s scanning technology is part of a trio of new features the company is planning for this fall. Apple is also allowing its voice assistant Siri to offer links and resources to people it believes may be in a serious situation, such as a child in danger. Proponents have been asking for that kind of functionality for a while.

It’s also adding a feature to its messaging app to proactively protect kids from explicit content, whether it’s an SMS conversation with green bubbles or an encrypted iMessage chat with blue bubbles. This new feature is designed specifically for devices enrolled with a child’s iCloud account and will alert if it detects an explicit image sent or received. As with Siri, the app will also offer links and resources if needed.

Apple’s system will also notify children of explicit images sent or received on its messaging app.

Apple

There are a lot of nuances involved here, which is part of why Apple has taken the unusual step of releasing research papers, FAQs, and other information ahead of its planned launch.

Here’s everything you should know:

Why is Apple doing this now?

Apple’s iCloud Photo Library Sync feature syncs images and videos between a person’s devices and company servers.

Apple

The tech giant said it has been trying to find a way to help stop child exploitation for some time. Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 65 million material reports. Apple said it is way up from 401 reports of 20 years ago.

“We also know that the 65 million reported files are only a small fraction of what’s out there,” said Julie Cordua, head of Thorn, a nonprofit fighting child exploitation that supports Apple’s efforts. He added that US law requires technology companies to report exploitation material if they find it, but does not require them to search for it.

Other companies actively search for such photos and videos. Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Google (and its subsidiary YouTube) all use various technologies to scan their systems for any potentially illegal uploads.

What makes Apple’s system unique is that it is designed to scan our devices, rather than information stored on the company’s servers.

The hash scanning system will only be applied to photos stored in iCloud Photo Library, which is a photo synchronization system built into Apple devices. It will not hash any images and videos stored in the photo app on a phone, tablet, or computer that doesn’t use iCloud Photo Library. So, in a way, people can give up if they choose not to use Apple’s iCloud photo sync services.

Could this system be abused?

China aggressively censors political speeches and images.

Getty Images

The question is not whether Apple should do what it can to combat child exploitation. It’s whether Apple should use this method.

The concern that privacy experts have raised on the slippery slope is whether Apple’s tools could be turned into dissident surveillance technology. Imagine if the Chinese government were able to somehow secretly add the data corresponding to the famous photo of Tank Man suppressed by the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square to Apple’s child exploitation content system.

Apple said it has designed features to prevent this from happening. The system does not scan photos, for example, it checks for matches between hash codes. The hash database is also stored on the phone, not a database that is on the Internet. Apple also noted that because scans are performed on the device, security researchers can verify how it works more easily.

Is Apple rummaging through my photos?

We’ve all seen a version of it: the photo of the baby in the bathtub. My parents had a little bit of me, I have some of my kids, and it was also a recurring gag in the 2017 Dreamworks animated comedy The Boss Baby.

Apple says those images shouldn’t trip its system. Since Apple’s system converts our photos into these hash codes and then compares them to a known database of child exploitation videos and photos, the company isn’t actually scanning our stuff. The company said the likelihood of a false positive is less than one in 1 trillion per year.

“Additionally, whenever an account is reported by the system, Apple conducts a human review before submitting a report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,” Apple wrote on its website. “Consequently, system errors or attacks will not result in reporting innocent people to NCMEC.”

Is Apple Reading My Messages?

Apple isn’t applying its hashing technology to our text messages. This is, in effect, a separate system. Instead, with text messages, Apple only alerts a user marked as a child in their iCloud account when they are about to send or receive an explicit image. The child can still view the image, and if he does, a parent will be notified.

“The feature is designed so that Apple doesn’t have access to the messages,” Apple said.

What does Apple say?

Apple claims its system is built with privacy in mind, with safeguards to prevent Apple from knowing the contents of our photo libraries and to minimize the risk of misuse.

“At Apple, our goal is to create technology that empowers people and enriches their lives by helping them stay safe,” Apple said in a statement. “We want to protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them and limit the dissemination of child pornography material”.

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