Apple Inc. will scan users' iPhone devices to prevent sexual harassment of children. If any images of child sexual abuse are found on a device, the agency will pass them on to law enforcement.
This scanning will initially be started among users in the United States.
A BBC report on Friday (August 6th) said.
It says that before a user's photo on an iPhone or iPad is stored on iCloud, it will be scanned to see if the photo is related to a sexual offense against a child. If so, the image will be scanned by a human operator.
If the technical scan and the human officer's audit match, Apple will send the image to law enforcement about the user's device.
Apple has said it will bring new updates to the iPhone and iPad this year.
In this update, any such image will be marked with a hash. If they match in the software code, it will be sent for further verification. In this case, if someone also uses the edited image, it will also be caught in the newly updated software code.
Apple has also claimed that this technology is very accurate. The new technology may give wrong results in just one picture out of one trillion pictures in a year.
The code is based on images of child sexual abuse at various times from various child safety organizations, including the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The pictures that iPhone users will take will be matched with the pictures of previous events before being saved in iCloud. And if it matches, the software will issue a warning (red flag).
Meanwhile, many feel that there is an opportunity for such technology to be used against citizens under the surveillance of government agencies.
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