Child pornography detection: according to Craig Federighi, Apple lacked clarity

A few days ago, Apple revealed its new measures to combat child pornography and to protect children from sexual content.

For these purposes, and asdescribed here, several tools will be implemented soon. There's talk of technology to detect child pornography among users' iCloud photos, sexual content warnings for child users in a shared family account, and additional information available in Siri and Spotlight regarding child pornography.

Apple has clarified on numerous occasions, the system is designed in such a way as toguarantee maximum confidentiality. This is explained in its FAQ, but also detailed byErik Neuenschwander, head of privacy at Apple, in an interview published a few days ago by Reuters.

Even more recently, it was the turn of Craig Federighi, vice-president of Apple, to speak out on the subject in an attempt to calm the enthusiasm of users worried about their privacy. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the senior manager of the Californian giant believesthat Apple has not been exemplary in its communicationabout new measures for child protection.

“It’s really clear a lot of messages got jumbled pretty badly in terms of how things were understood. We wish that this would’ve come out a little more clearly for everyone because we feel very positive and strongly about what we’re doing.”

According to him, the firm could have been clearer by avoiding putting the three tools, which are in themselves very different, in the same basket. But also to make it clear that unlike what other cloud services practice in the fight against child pornography, Apple will not monitor the iCloud images of its users and will not be able to have access to them. The technology underlying the detection of child pornography takes advantage of an identifier and alert threshold system, all carried out locally on the user's iPhone.

But the damage seems to be done since many analysts have already described the system as a gateway for governments and afirst step towards mass surveillance. Added to this is the fact that several press articles have been alarmist on the subject without going into the details of the system to fully understand how it works. Concern has therefore not failed to grow among many users,until reaching certain Apple employees elsewhere.

To catch up on its somewhat confusing communication, the Cupertino company is doing its best, precisely through interviews, but also through its FAQ or even indisseminating detailed information internallyallowing its employees to be able to properly answer the questions that users concerned about their privacy will ask them in the months and weeks to come.

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.