[Just The News] Apple plans to scan all iPhone in the U.S. for potential child abuse imagery.The move announced Thursday generated shock waves among security experts who say it could allow the company to surveil many millions of phones for reasons unrelated to images of child abuse.
"This sort of tool can be a boon for finding child pornography in people's phones. But imagine what it could do in the hands of an authoritarian government," tweeted Johns Hopkins professor and cryptographer Matthew Green.
The Big Tech company says the new scanning technology will be a part of iOS 15, which is set for release this month. It is part of a number of new child protection programs being initiated by the company that will "evolve and expand" over time.
In a blog post, the company wrote, "This innovative new technology allows Apple to provide valuable and actionable information to [the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] and law enforcement regarding the proliferation of known CSAM," — an acronym for child sex abuse material.