Security News > 2021 > November > Government-favoured child safety app warned it could violate the UK's Investigatory Powers Act with message-scanning tech
A company repeatedly endorsed by ministers backing the UK's Online Safety Bill was warned by its lawyers that its technology could breach the Investigatory Powers Act's ban on unlawful interception of communications, The Register can reveal.
SafeToNet, a content-scanning startup whose product is aimed at parents and uses AI to monitor messages sent to and from children's online accounts, had to change its product after being warned that a feature developed for the government-approved app would break the law.
Chief exec Richard Pursey recounted, during an online seminar at the CogX conference in March this year, how his company's lawyers warned SafeToNet its technology was unlawful.
Pursey added that Britain's unique tech law environment throws this problem up regularly, telling us: "We were a very young startup then but it worries me that those that don't have the finance to get professional advice will cut corners and innocently/naively breach laws like etc. We see that all the time, especially with international safety tech providers entering the UK market. They often have no idea these laws exist."
Law enforcement bodies such as the National Crime Agency claim that wider adoption of E2EE will stop them from detecting paedophiles preying on children through messaging apps.
Avoiding the E2EE problem by scanning messages on children's devices after delivery seems like it might help preserve adults' internet privacy while allowing police agencies to focus on actual harms instead of indiscriminate platform surveillance.