Future of Sex
tagline
  • Remote Sex
  • Virtual Sex & Entertainment
  • Robots
  • Human Augmentation
  • Sex Tech
  • Dating & Relationships
  • Bizarre Bazaar 18+
  • Future of Sex Community
  • Remote Sex
  • Virtual Sex & Entertainment
  • Robots
  • Human Augmentation
  • Sex Tech
  • Dating & Relationships
  • Bizarre Bazaar 18+
  • Future of Sex Community
  • Lovense Partners with Audiodesires Erotica Platform to Enable Multi-sensory Pleasure

  • News on International Congress on Love and Sex with Robots

  • Pleasure and Consent in Sex in Space

  • Sex Tech Mixers, Hackathons & Conferences [UPDATED]

  • Sex in the Metaverse: A New Space with Old Problems

  • 5 Social Media Accounts Helping People Grow Past Fundamentalism

  • How Dating Apps Can Do Better For Non-Binary Users

  • How embracing my ADHD led to better orgasms

Future of Sex is supported by our readers. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Home > Sex Tech > The Apple Privacy Debate: Scanning Photos Is in Service of ‘Human Freedoms’

Sex Tech
Home›Sex Tech›The Apple Privacy Debate: Scanning Photos Is in Service of ‘Human Freedoms’

The Apple Privacy Debate: Scanning Photos Is in Service of ‘Human Freedoms’

By Chris Hoofnagle
August 21, 2021
260
0

A privacy expert argues that Apple's CSAM reporting is necessary, but warns of a less private future.

A preview of updated privacy settings, viewed on an iPhone.

Earlier this month, Apple announced that it will begin reporting users with excessive amount of Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM) to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Apple software will scan the hashes of all photos stored in iCloud for matches to NCMEC's database.

This move has stirred up controversy, as pro-privacy advocates claim that this could mark the end of Apple's dedication to user privacy.

As part of the Future of Sex Expert Series, Chris Hoofnagle, Professor of Law in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley, explains why Apple's decision is nuanced, and possibly necessary.

Apple is pursing a delicate balance in a space where few people are willing to find compromise.

On one hand, civil libertarians see end-user encryption as a kind of sacred, terminal value. The danger to this value is that once Apple can perform on-device-analysis for Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM), there may be “function creep” to other enforcement priorities, such as scanning users' iPhones for pro-ISIS propaganda.

A need for CSAM deterrence

On the other hand, anyone who has worked on CSAM deterrence knows the seriousness of the crime and the depths of guile that predators will use to acquire and to create CSAM.

Allow me to share some low-lights to provide context: The case law includes defendants who have tried to convene in-person conferences among CSAM collectors, defendants who abduct and traffic victims, and in some cases, parents who generate new CSAM using their children.

Most people are horrified by CSAM, but there is a faction that enjoys it and encourages more production; this faction is willing to pay. Thus, the Internet makes it possible, easy, and remunerative to offer live, on-demand abuse of others.

Cryptocurrencies, another hobbyhorse of the freedom for technology crowd, has facilitated these markets.

“The problem [of CSAM] has a new shape and new dimensions now”

It's important to know that CSAM was difficult to obtain before the Internet, and acquisition required some determination.

But nowadays, acquiring, making, and selling CSAM is easier, and that ease has expanded the problem. We cannot dismiss the problem by observing that CSAM has existed for decades; the problem has a new shape and new dimensions now.

A toxic user base

Apple's pro-privacy posture also makes the context more complex.

Unfortunately, explicitly pro-privacy services tend to attract criminals and child abusers (privacy is often secondary to other product attributes, like luxury or exclusivity, but privacy is rarely a primary product attribute).

Thus, Apple may have inadvertently developed a toxic user base. Apple's strategy then could be seen as cream-skimming. That is, Apple might want to get rid of CSAM users and keep CSAM users in the free ecosystems. That way, Apple can enjoy the luxury privacy users and cast off the others.

“I think Apple… is proceeding reasonably”

Picture of Tim Cook with Chongqing Mayor Huang in Apple Jiefangbei

From a responsibility standpoint, I think Apple has seriously weighed these issues and is proceeding reasonably.

We have to assume that Apple is acting for a reason, one that it probably cannot state in public.

Its employees probably do not want to be hosting CSAM in its own iCloud and want to avoid having to manually screen for it, which requires looking at the material.

Apple has the prerogative to exclude this content, just as many cloud providers categorically exclude pirated movies.

It would be nice if Apple had more consultation with stakeholders. But Apple might have simply thought the advocates too blinkered to appreciate the CSAM problem.

The need for user protection

Going forward, it would be advantageous to have transparency on false positives.

It would also be good to have legal guarantees and signposts if the local scanning exceeded the bounds of CSAM. One way Apple could do this is by providing neutral forensic expertise in cases where people are charged with CSAM offenses.

What do pornography consumers need to know?

Now, as to pornography consumers, what if one inadvertently downloads CSAM? The legal responsibility is to delete CSAM. One should never return to a service that has CSAM, because it is a signal of a lack of controls.

The good news is that law enforcement is sophisticated about inadvertent downloading; the cases they bring almost invariably involve determined suspects with hundreds of images.

Risks lie ahead

Then the foreseeable risk is this: what if criminals or governments plant collections of CSAM on users' devices? Foreign intelligence agencies have a long history of using honeypots to entrap people; why wouldn't China or Russia also be willing to use CSAM? I think this is a real risk that will have to be spotted and managed by the NSA and FBI.

Technology has freed people to explore their sexuality in responsible and safe ways. There are few sexual activities safer than viewing online pornography. But we have to temper the advantages of online pornography with some responsibility to protect others.

“Our primary pursuit should be human freedoms”

I began this essay by suggesting that civil libertarians had confused instrumental and terminal goals, framing technology freedom as an end in itself.

As a society, I think we are beginning to see the illiberality of this inversion; it denies the possibility of liberal governance and conceives of rights as freedoms unbalanced with responsibility. That view might have been acceptable in the 1990s but nowadays it is naive.

Our primary pursuit should be human freedoms, with technology in service of that freedom. Apple's approach attempts to right these priorities.

Image source: Apple, Apple, Arne Müseler

Tagsfutureofsexexpert

Chris Hoofnagle

Chris Jay Hoofnagle is Professor of Law in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, where he teaches cybersecurity, programming for lawyers and torts. He is affiliated faculty with the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, an adjunct professor in the School of Information, and a faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.

Hoofnagle’s new book with Simson Garfinkel, Law and Policy for the Quantum Age is forthcoming 2021 from Cambridge University Press.
Previous Article

Sex Tech News: Big Banking’s War on ...

Next Article

Light-up LED Butt Plug Pulses Along to ...

Related articles More from author

  • An illustration of a space deck where the pilot would sit. The shift is instead shaped like a penis.
    Sex Tech

    Pleasure and Consent in Sex in Space

    June 21, 2022
    By Dr. Eleanor Armstrong
  • Virtually Dating VR
    Dating & RelationshipsVirtual Sex & Entertainment

    What Will Make Virtual Reality Dating Go Mainstream?

    April 22, 2021
    By Jenna Owsianik, Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net
  • Logo of OnlyFans
    Virtual Sex & Entertainment

    OnlyFans Models and Copyright: Protecting the Value of Your Booty

    September 22, 2020
    By Lawrence G. Walters
  • Phallic cactus with mannequin hand
    Augmentation

    What Is the Most Exciting Possibility for the Future of Penile Enhancement?

    February 16, 2022
    By Jenna Owsianik, Editor-in-Chief of FutureofSex.net
  • Kokeshi ai sex doll's face shown closeup
    Robots

    AI Sex Dolls Are Not Embraced by Everyone in the Love Doll Community

    November 11, 2021
    By Kenneth R. Hanson
  • Kenneth Play is an international sex educator who teaches people how to have better sex.
    Dating & Relationships

    VR Will Set Off ‘Next Big Revolution’ In Sex Ed, Says Sex Hacker

    June 17, 2021
    By Kenneth Play

  • Sex Tech

    Talk Dirty to Me: Slutbot Will Teach You How to Sext

  • A woman wearing aviatar sunglasses with the Ethereum logo on each lens.
    Sex Tech

    4 Reasons Why the Sex Industry is Embracing Blockchain

  • Multiplayer Online Sex Games
    Virtual Sex & EntertainmentVirtual Sex

    Revue: Les Meilleurs Jeux de Sexe en Ligne Massivement Multijoueurs

Virtual Lust is a 3D interactive sex game.
3DXChat
Discover the best virtual sex parties and 3D sex worlds.
  • TOP REVIEWS

  • Realistic Sex Games

    Review of the Best Sex Games and Most Realistic Sex Simulators of 2021 [UPDATED]

    0
  • Multiplayer Online Sex Games

    Review of the Best Massively Multiplayer Online Sex Games

    0
  • Sex Games for Mac

    The Best Sex Games for Mac

    0
  • foot-fetish-sex-games-girlvania

    Foot Fetish Games That Will Knock Your Socks Off

    0
  • The Best RPG Sex Games of 2021

    0
Fantasy sex game Dream Sex World lets you explore your wildest desires.
Multiplayer sex world Red Light Center continues to impress with its massive userbase and incredible sex graphics.
A blonde and light-skinned love doll face sppears next to the text Go now realdollxthe future is real.
  • 27KFollowers

Like Us on Facebook

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our monthly newsletter sharing the very best of the future of sex from our publication and others across the web.

DreamSexWorld offers a stunning XXX 3D world filled with incredibly interactive erotic experiences.

Like Us On Facebook

Facebook Pagelike Widget

RLC_ad_v2

Tweets by @FutureofSex
Future of Sex Report

Follow us

  • Home
  • About
  • ADVERTISE
  • Contribute
  • Story Ideas?
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
© 2011 - 2022 Future Exploration Network
This website or its third-party tools use cookies to improve user experience and track affiliate sales. To learn more about why we need to use cookies, please refer to the Privacy Policy.

By clicking the agree button or continuing to browse through the website, you agree to the use of cookies. Accept Privacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
SAVE & ACCEPT