{"id":680590,"date":"2021-08-24T16:51:13","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T20:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=680590"},"modified":"2021-08-24T16:51:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T20:51:17","slug":"experts-say-apples-child-porn-detection-tool-is-less-accurate-than-advertised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/experts-say-apples-child-porn-detection-tool-is-less-accurate-than-advertised\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Say Apple\u2019s Child Porn Detection Tool Is Less Accurate Than Advertised"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexperts-say-apples-child-porn-detection-tool-is-less-accurate-than-advertised%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=680590&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"29.364705882353\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/\">Latest News<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Critics worry authoritarian governments could use tool to hunt dissidents<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"491\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-736x491-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-scaled-e1629834518531.jpg 736w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/s4.freebeacon.com\/up\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1319287291-1400x933.jpg 1400w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\t(Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/santi-ruiz\/\" title=\"Posts by Santi Ruiz\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Santi Ruiz<\/a> \u2022 August 24, 2021 4:50 pm<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"85.530974949221\">\n<p>Privacy advocates say Apple\u2019s child pornography detection tool has a higher false-positive rate than the company claims.<\/p>\n<p>Apple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/child-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> earlier this month that it will begin scanning user photos stored on iCloud for material found on a database of child pornography. The company says the false-positive rate in initial tests of the system was one in a trillion. But researchers have <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/AsuharietYgvar\/AppleNeuralHash2ONNX\/issues\/1#issue-973388387\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reverse engineered<\/a> Apple\u2019s system to show it classifies multiple sets of distinct photos as identical. The mistakes in the detection system cast doubt on Apple\u2019s numbers and suggest iCloud users may be accidentally targeted by law enforcement or malicious actors.<\/p>\n<p>The detection tool marks a shift for Apple. After a 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., the company refused to build the FBI a backdoor into the shooter\u2019s phone, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.apple.com\/customer-letter\/answers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">saying<\/a>, &#8220;The only way to guarantee that such a powerful tool isn\u2019t abused and doesn\u2019t fall into the wrong hands is to never create it.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/cdt.org\/insights\/what-could-go-wrong-apples-misguided-plans-to-gut-end-to-end-encryption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Experts<\/a> have <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/china-could-abuse-apples-child-porn-detection-tool-experts-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">warned<\/a> that authoritarian governments could use the detection tool to hunt down political dissidents.<\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s detection system works by comparing &#8220;hashes,&#8221; or unique identifiers, of iCloud photos to hashes of known child pornography. If the system flags a certain number of hash matches, Apple employees will confirm the materials and alert authorities.<\/p>\n<p>But researchers using code posted publicly by Apple say they\u2019ve already found distinct photos that <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.roboflow.com\/neuralhash-collision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">share the same hash<\/a>. In one <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sV1dF4Oulb?amp=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">example<\/a>, researchers artificially <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/AsuharietYgvar\/AppleNeuralHash2ONNX\/issues\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">modified<\/a> a picture of a dog so that the photo\u2019s hash was identical to a photo of a young girl. Experts <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthew_d_green\/status\/1428008077874368516?s=20\">worry<\/a> that bad actors could modify normal photos to trigger a match with child pornography, and send the photos to unsuspecting users.<\/p>\n<p>Apple has resisted outside scrutiny of its new system. While Apple executive Craig Federighi <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/apple-executive-defends-tools-to-fight-child-porn-acknowledges-privacy-backlash-11628859600\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told<\/a> the <em>Wall Street Journal <\/em>that independent researchers were welcome to assess the child porn detection mechanism, the company <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/8\/11\/22620014\/apple-corellium-security-virtual-iphone-dmca-lawsuit-settled\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sued<\/a> Corellium, a firm that provides researchers with tools to analyze Apple products.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For the last several years, Apple has argued that doing privacy and security research on iOS is illegal,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2021\/08\/16\/apple-corellium-child-porn-iphone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according<\/a> to former Facebook security officer Alex Stamos. Apple has not said whether the code it posted publicly is the code for the final scanning tool, leaving researchers in the dark.<\/p>\n<p>The company has been similarly unclear about the database it will use to identify Child Sexual Abuse Material. The company maintains that keeping the database of images private will prevent people from reverse engineering the hashes of inappropriate photos.<\/p>\n<p>But while Apple says any flagged iCloud content must match databases from at least two child protection organizations, it has only named one such organization, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.<\/p>\n<p>Apple did not respond to a request for the names of other partner organizations.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Latest News Critics worry authoritarian governments could use tool to hunt dissidents  (Photo by Michael M. Santiago\/Getty Images)  Santi Ruiz \u2022 August 24, 2021 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}