NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has issued a warning over recent child-protection features unveiled by Apple for its iPhones and iPads, claiming that they will open the floodgates for privacy violation by governments and private parties.
Apple unveiled the features earlier this month, saying they would help limit digital contraband on its devices.
Experts have already warned against the feature, saying that it could be hacked or exploited.
This is because the feature essentially entails Apple devices checking images uploaded to its cloud storage and on its messaging platform for things like child sex abuse material or CSAM.
Now, Snowden has said that other companies following suit could lead to a torrent of privacy breaches across the board.
And that fear is not unfounded, with many phone-makers adding to their budget devices the very features Apple would popularize with each iteration of the iPhone or iPad.
Worse, Snowden said in his blog post, is that lawmakers can in future compel manufacturers to give them access to such technology on their devices, which would be a further invasion of the device-owners’ privacy.
Now, Apple has already said people can opt out of this feature. Snowden, who made a name by blowing the whistle on illegal snooping by the US-based National Security Agency, was quick to point out the problem with that.
He wrote: “If you’re an enterprising pedophile with a basement full of CSAM-tainted iPhones, Apple welcomes you to entirely exempt yourself from these scans by simply flipping the ‘Disable iCloud Photos’ switch, a bypass which reveals that this system was never designed to protect children, as they would have you believe, but rather to protect their brand.”
This in effect means the feature could fail to perform the very task it was intended for.
Snowden, however, added to the nightmare fuel, asking: “So what happens when, in a few years at the latest, a politician points that out, and—in order to protect the children—bills are passed in the legislature to prohibit this ‘Disable’ bypass, effectively compelling Apple to scan photos that aren’t backed up to iCloud?”
He went on to claim that Apple’s proposal to make their phones inform on and betray their owners “marks the dawn of a dark future, one to be written in the blood of the political opposition of a hundred countries that will exploit this system to the hilt.”