Apple employees are speaking out on the tech company’s plans to scan U.S. customer’s phones, tablets, and computers for incriminating images of child sex abuse, Reuters first reported.
According to Reuters’ sources, employees have spent the last several days sending more than 800 messages on an internal Slack channel regarding the move.
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While the federal government lacks authority to inspect vast caches of information from personal households, Apple is volunteering to do it. Workers expressed concerns about potential misuse or exploitation by government officials covertly looking for other material. Apple has promised not to oblige governmental requests regarding anything besides child sexual abuse.
Others are concerned that such a move is irreparably damaging to Apple’s reputation of safeguarding customers’ privacy. Some employees hope the planned scans prompt Apple to encrypt iCloud for its customers fully.
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Critics demand a reversal of the plan.
“What Apple is showing with their announcement last week is that there are technical weaknesses that they are willing to build in,” Emma Llanso, director of an electronic democracy organization, told Reuters. “It seems so out of step from everything that they had previously been saying and doing.”
It’s a stark difference from Apple’s 2016 bucking of the FBI’s demands to help crack an alleged terrorist’s iPhone. Then, Apple had said assisting the government in that manner could lead to future invasions of privacy.
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