After criticism, Apple says it will delay child safety updates

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(Reuters) -Apple Inc said on Friday it would take longer to gather feedback and improve child safety features offered after criticism of the system over privacy and other grounds both inside and out. outside the company.

Apples vowed last month to check the phones and computers of U.S. customers for images of child sexual abuse.

Critics argued that the feature could be exploited by repressive governments looking to find other elements of censorship or arrest and that it would also be impossible for outside researchers to determine if Apple was only verifying a small set. content on the device.

Apple countered that it would allow security researchers to verify its claims, but the company said on Friday it would take longer to make changes to the system.

Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we’ve decided to take extra time over the next few months to gather feedback and make improvements before releasing these security features. critically important children, the company said in a statement Friday.

Matthew Green, a cybersecurity researcher at Johns Hopkins University who criticized Apple’s move, said Apple’s move was promising.

Green said on Twitter that Apple should make it clear why you are scanning and what you are scanning. Going from scanning nothing (except email attachments) to scanning everyone’s private photo library was a huge delta. You have to justify escalations like this.

Apple had been playing the defense on the plan for weeks, and had already offered a series of explanations and documents to show that the risks of false detections were low.

He had planned to roll out the feature for iPhones, iPads, and Macs with software updates later this year in the United States.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bangalore and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Patrick Graham and Marguerita Choy)

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