Apple installs “government spyware” according to Epic
Tim Sweeney, the boss of Epic Games, criticized Apple’s tool to fight child pornography, saying it is a “Government spyware”. It refers to the fact that Apple will scan photos and messages of users from iOS 15 to try to find content with child sexual abuse. Apple will report the individuals in question to the authorities.
Apple is on slippery ground according to Epic Games
“I tried to see it from Apple’s point of view. But inevitably, it is government spyware installed by Apple on the basis of a presumption of guilt ”, tweeted Tim Sweeney. “Although Apple wrote the code, its function is to scan personal data and report it to the government”, he adds. He points out that this is different from an audit that could be done on a public forum or other online space.
Tim Sweeney also criticized iCloud for downloading user data by default, causing people to accumulate “Unwanted data”. The leader also warns that Apple “Must comply with all applicable laws wherever they do business. We can therefore assume that Apple will henceforth be an arm of state oversight wherever it is needed ”, before discussing Apple’s compromises in terms of privacy in China.
What about the future?
Always in his tweets, he evokes the future and invites us to think of the children of today who will be the adults of tomorrow. “Think of the dystopia they will grow up in if we tolerate the uncontrolled growth of private monopolies endowed with unlimited supervisory power and increasingly assuming roles of government, without being subject to liberal democratic processes.”
Apple’s project to fight child pornography is in any case a lot of talk and it is not necessarily for the right reasons. Several people believe that Apple, which emphasizes confidentiality, does not respect its own convictions. Others go further and talk about setting up a backdoor, fearing that governments may ask Apple to analyze other content in the future.
