Apple details reasons to abandon CSAM-scanning tool, more controversy ensues

Published

1 year ago

September 4, 2023

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“a slippery slope of unintended consequences” — Apple details reasons to abandon CSAM-scanning tool, more controversy ensues Safety groups remain concerned about child sexual abuse material scanning and user reporting.

Lily Hay Newman, wired.com – Sep 2, 2023 10:33 am UTC EnlargeLeonardo Munoz/Getty reader comments 181 with

In December, Apple said that it was killing an effort to design a privacy-preserving iCloud photo scanning tool for detecting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the platform. Originally announced in August 2021, the project had been controversial since its inception. Apple first paused it that September in response to concerns from digital rights groups and researchers that such a tool would inevitably be abused and exploited to compromise the privacy and security of all iCloud users. This week, a new child safety group known as Heat Initiative told Apple that it is organizing a campaign to demand that the company detect, report, and remove child sexual abuse material from iCloud and offer more tools for users to report CSAM to the company.

Today, in a rare move, Apple responded to Heat Initiative, outlining its reasons for abandoning the development of its iCloud CSAM scanning feature and instead focusing on a set of on-device tools and resources for users known collectively as Communication Safety features. The company’s response to Heat Initiative, which Apple shared with WIRED this morning, offers a rare look not just at its rationale for pivoting to Communication Safety, but at its broader views on creating mechanisms to circumvent user privacy protections, such as encryption, to monitor data. This stance is relevant to the encryption debate more broadly, especially as countries like the United Kingdom weigh passing laws that would require tech companies to be able to access user data to comply with law enforcement requests. Advertisement

Child sexual abuse material is abhorrent and we are committed to breaking the chain of coercion and influence that makes children susceptible to it, Erik Neuenschwander, Apple’s director of user privacy and child safety, wrote in the company’s response to Heat Initiative. He added, though, that after collaborating with an array of privacy and security researchers, digital rights groups, and child safety advocates, the company concluded that it could not proceed with development of a CSAM-scanning mechanism, even one built specifically to preserve privacy.

Scanning every users privately stored iCloud data would create new threat vectors for data thieves to find and exploit,” Neuenschwander wrote. “It would also inject the potential for a slippery slope of unintended consequences. Scanning for one type of content, for instance, opens the door for bulk surveillance and could create a desire to search other encrypted messaging systems across content types.

WIRED could not immediately reach Heat Initiative for comment about Apple’s response. The group is led by Sarah Gardner, former vice president of external affairs for the nonprofit Thorn, which works to use new technologies to combat child exploitation online and sex trafficking. In 2021, Thorn lauded Apple’s plan to develop an iCloud CSAM scanning feature. Gardner said in an email to CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday, which Apple also shared with WIRED, that Heat Initiative found Apple’s decision to kill the feature disappointing.

We firmly believe that the solution you unveiled not only positioned Apple as a global leader in user privacy but also promised to eradicate millions of child sexual abuse images and videos from iCloud, Gardner wrote to Cook. I am a part of a developing initiative involving concerned child safety experts and advocates who intend to engage with you and your company, Apple, on your continued delay in implementing critical technology Child sexual abuse is a difficult issue that no one wants to talk about, which is why it gets silenced and left behind. We are here to make sure that doesnt happen. Advertisement

Apple maintains that, ultimately, even its own well-intentioned design could not be adequately safeguarded in practice, and that on-device nudity detections for features like Messages, FaceTime, AirDrop, the Photo picker are a safer alternatives. Apple has also begun offering an application programming interface (API) for its Communication Safety features so third-party developers can incorporate them into their apps. Apple says that the communication platform Discord is integrating the features and that app makers broadly have been enthusiastic about adopting them.

We decided to not proceed with the proposal for a hybrid client-server approach to CSAM detection for iCloud Photos from a few years ago, Neuenschwander wrote to Heat Initiative. We concluded it was not practically possible to implement without ultimately imperiling the security and privacy of our users.

On Heat Initiative’s request that Apple create a CSAM reporting mechanism for users, the company told WIRED that its focus is on connecting its vulnerable or victimized users directly with local resources and law enforcement in their region that can assist them rather than Apple positioning itself as a middle man for processing reports. The company says that offering this intermediary service may make sense for interactive platforms like social networks.

The need to protect children from online sexual abuse is urgent, though, and as these concerns intersect with the broader encryption debate, Apple’s resolve on refusing to implement data scanning will continue to be tested.

Read the full exchange between Heat Initiative and Apple at WIRED. WIRED has redacted sensitive personal information for the privacy of senders and recipients.

This story originally appeared on wired.com. reader comments 181 with Advertisement Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars

Entertainment

Scarlett Johansson responds after her likeness is used in AI video of celebrities condemning Kanye West’s antisemitism

Published

24 mins ago

February 12, 2025

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Scarlett Johansson responds after her likeness is used in AI video of celebrities condemning Kanye West's antisemitism

Scarlett Johansson has condemned the use of AI after her likeness was used in a viral video of celebrities condemning Kanye West’s antisemitism.

The AI-generated clip shows celebrities such as Johansson, Ben Stiller, Mila Kunis and Steven Spielberg wearing white T-shirts featuring the Star of David inside a hand sticking up its middle finger above Kanye’s name.

It finishes with an AI version of Adam Sandler sticking his middle finger up at the camera and the words: “Enough is enough. Join the fight to end antisemitism.”

But Johansson released a statement about “the misuse of AI”, writing: “I am a Jewish woman who has no tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech of any kind.

“But I also firmly believe that the potential for hate speech multiplied by AI is a far greater threat than any one person who takes accountability for it.

“We must call out the misuse of AI, no matter its messaging, or we risk losing a hold on reality.”

She added: “I have unfortunately been a very public victim of AI, but the truth is that the threat of AI affects each and every one of us.”

She called on the US government to do more to limit AI, adding: “There is a 1,000ft wave coming regarding AI that several progressive countries, not including the United States, have responded to in a responsible manner. It is terrifying that the US government is paralysed when it comes to passing legislation that protects all of its citizens against the imminent dangers of AI.

“I urge the US government to make the passing of legislation limiting AI use a top priority; it is a bipartisan issue that enormously affects the immediate future of humanity at large.”

Controversy surrounding swastika T-shirts

It comes amid a backlash after West, also known as Ye, sold T-shirts featuring a swastika and wrote a series of antisemitic messages on X.

On Sunday the US rapper bought a Super Bowl advert which directed people to his website, which featured nothing but a single white T-shirt with a swastika on the front alongside the code “HH-01” – which the Anti-Defamation League (ADF) said was code for “Heil Hitler”.

The ADF described the shirt, which was on sale for $20 (£16) as “further proof” of West’s antisemitism.

The e-commerce platform Spotify, which hosts many online shops and businesses, later deactivated his site.

In an emailed statement to Sky News’ partner network NBC News, Shopify said: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”

Antisemitic online posts

In recent days West posted antisemitic messages on X, as well as “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”.

His account then had a “sensitive content warning” added before he deactivated it on Monday.

His spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos said: “Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism was joined by Friends star David Schwimmer, who features in the AI video, in calling for Elon Musk to remove West from X over a string of offensive posts.

World

Ukraine war: Donald Trump says peace negotiations with Russia to start ‘immediately’

Published

24 mins ago

February 12, 2025

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Ukraine war: Donald Trump says peace negotiations with Russia to start 'immediately'

Donald Trump says there has been agreement to begin negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine, after holding phone calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

It is the US president’s first big step towards diplomacy over a conflict which he promised to end within 24 hours of being inaugurated.

“We both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social following discussions with Russia’s president.

He said the pair would “work together, very closely” towards winding down the conflict and “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately”.

A Kremlin spokesperson said Mr Putin and Mr Trump had agreed to meet, with the Russian president inviting the US leader to visit Moscow.

Ukraine latest: Trump’s plan to end war

“President Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement can be achieved through peaceful negotiations,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president wrote on X that he had a “meaningful conversation” by phone with Mr Trump to discuss “opportunities to achieve peace” and the preparation of a document governing security and economic cooperation.

“No one wants peace more than Ukraine. Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace,” he said.

Mr Trump added that his phone conversation with Mr Zelenskyy “went very well”, suggesting that “he [Mr Zelenskyy], like President Putin, wants to make PEACE”.

On social media, the US president said: “It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”

Trump’s bombshell phone call

Dominic Waghorn

International affairs editor

@DominicWaghorn

Trump’s bombshell phone call leaves questions unanswered.

He says there have been NATO efforts all day to stop the damage to unity done by defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who said it’s unrealistic that Ukraine will get all of its land back in a peace deal or join NATO.

That impression of unity is crumbling.

Trump’s call with Putin is a break from three years of firm determination by NATO members to be united behind the principle of not talking about Ukraine without Ukraine.

The president’s announcement that Russian and US teams will start negotiations does not make clear whether they are bilateral talks or involve Kyiv.

Donald Trump seems to have made commitments in that phone call with Putin that the Russians expect him to hold himself to – what are those commitments?

On Wednesday, the US defence secretary delivered a blunt statement on the new US administration’s approach to the nearly three-year-old war.

Speaking at a NATO meeting in Brussels, Pete Hegseth said a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic and the US did not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war.

“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.

Separately the US and Russia agreed to a prisoner swap. America freed a Russian cybercrime boss in return for Moscow’s release of schoolteacher Marc Fogel, a US official said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile at a White House news conference on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she was “not aware of” Mr Trump putting any preconditions on his meeting with Mr Putin.

Mr Trump said the peace negotiations will be led by secretary of state Marco Rubio, director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, national security advisor Michael Waltz, and ambassador Steve Witkoff.

US