Security News > 2021 > August > Apple responds to critics of CSAM scan plan with FAQs, says it'd block governments subverting its system

On Monday, Eric Rescorla, CTO of Mozilla, published a technical analysis of Apple's system that suggests the security of the company's CSAM scanning effort depends on Apple behaving in a trustworthy manner.

"It's important to realize that there's nothing in the system that prevents Apple from scanning photos that never leave the device; they've just chosen not to do so," he wrote.

Starting with forthcoming operating system updates iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey, the contents of your iPhone will be Apple's business if you sync images to iCloud.

Security experts are concerned Apple's system will allow government authorities to demand that the company add non-CSAM image hashes to its detection list to ferret out photos deemed unacceptable for political, religious, or other reasons unrelated to child safety.

In the FAQs published on Monday, Apple attempts to ally concern that authorities could demand access to its CSAM system for other surveillance purposes by stating that the company would simply resist.

"Could governments force Apple to add non-CSAM images to the hash list?" Apple asks, and then answers, "Apple will refuse any such demands."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/08/09/apple_csam_faq/