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Apple appoints itself cybercop?

The newswires have been buzzing today with news that Apple intends to scan users' phones and other devices for child pornography images and report the results of any matches to authorities.

WTF?

Since when has it been acceptable for the manufacturer of a device to invade your privacy by scanning *your* data without your expressed permission?

Or is this really the case?

As is so often the case, it seems that the truth is a little (albeit only slightly) different to the stories being published in the media.

The Financial Times (firewalled) seems to have kicked this whole thing off by publishing a story in which it reported that Apple was going to be updating its OSes to include automatic scanning and identification of child-abuse material on customers' phones.

Naturally this created a huge amount of outrage, and quite reasonably so.

However, a little deeper digging seems to indicate that although it will be doing exactly this, it's not something that will be happening all the time and although I'm a stauch advocate for privacy, I can see what they're doing.

Apple also operates a cloud service where users can automatically (or on demand) have their data safely mirrored or stored on Apple's servers. This process effectively extends the capacity of their devices as well as providing a great way to back up valuable material in case a device is lost or destroyed.

Based on the contents of this page it appears that Apple will indeed be scanning customers' data on the lookout for child abuse material but *only* if they intend to mirror or upload that material to the cloud.

It's easy to see why they might want to do this.

If someone has objectionable material on their phone that's one thing, Apple can't be held responsible for such crimes. However, if that material is actually stored on an Apple owned or administered computer the situation changes dramatically.

It would appear that Apple plans to only scan material on a customer's phone immediately prior to any upload operation (automated or manual) and it is doing this to protect itself from the liabilities that might result from actually hosting that material.

From this angle I have no problem with Apple's intentions, however they'd better be giving iron-clad guarantees that this is truly what happens and not simply covering up a more sinister intrusion into people's right to privacy.

Don't get me wrong, I have no sympathy for anyone that engages in the creation or trafficking in objectionable material but we can't allow that to become an excuse for what amounts to warrantless searches of our devices on the "off chance" that someone might be caught out doing something bad.

So, did the media get it wrong or has Apple, facing the outrage of customers who thought they were buying a secure device with guaranteed privacy, simply done a backtrack?

Given Apple's willingness to go to court to protect its customers' data one would certainly hope it was pro-privacy and had never intended to act as unlicensed cyber-police.

However, the way the world is going, I would not be surprised if manufacturers are eventually required by law to include technology that constantly monitors for law-breaking and reports suspected cases directly to enforcement agents.

It's starting to look as if the victories won in WW2 simply delayed the inevitable and pretty soon fascism will be the accepted norm.

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