In defense of Apples client-side check for child pornography

In defense of Apples client-side check for child pornography



There are broadly two arguments against implementing a on device hashtag-based check on child pornography before uploading the files on the servers both of which are based on the same argument.

•	Slippery sloop as to what apple or the US government might use it for, and tyrannic societies might make miss use of the technology
•	The technology is a backdoor

The slippery sloop argument

The slippery sloop argument is a falsity that is being used in a lot of arguments one of the most famous one is gun control. If you ban assault weapons what is next, if you do background checks where will the checks end. And of course gay marriage, what is next a sheep and a person?

A slippery sloop is perhaps best seen true the eyes of Martin Niemöllers quote:
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist….”

The idea is of course that you might let things slide because it doesn’t affect you even though you don’t agree or even are appalled by and it obvious that it is bad and doesn’t have an upside. That is why the gun control and the gay marriage arguments are nonsense. Societies evolve by moving morale guard posts when it is obvious people are badly affected by it or because it opens new possibilities without having downsides or the upsides out weight the downsides. This considering I find it hard to agree with “first they came for child pornography”. In the same way jails can be used to put political adversaries in it. But we are not making the case to abolish them with the idea of “first they came for murderers”.

In this case it is about needing to check for child pornography. The argument boils down to:

This is something nobody can object too but it can also be used by despotic, tyrannic governments to block and check upon things that are absolutely against the thinking of a free society.

This of course could become true, but as NYT already reported last June. The Chinese government doesn’t need this technology as they are already able to read anything stored in iCloud. The idea that the Internet is the same in every country, once true, is not true anymore for years. Any argument that states that is because of the preservations of the free state of the world wide web is a falsity by itself. It already doesn’t exist anymore, and unfree governments implement their own rules. This is also true in cases of freedom of speech. Where apparently western societies should be open for misinformation, hate speech and a like because China or Saudi Arabi might otherwise silence opponents. But in these countries the free internet is long gone. If Apple can resist giving access to iCloud to poorer countries, they can also resist misuse of this technology to these countries.
What the technology does is preserving the privacy of iCloud in free societies while making it harder for child pornography to be stored on their servers. Western societies should stop with trying to preserve something that doesn’t exist anymore and make sure the free internet is not being misused. There should be tighter rules and regulations just like there are for the real world.

The slippery sloop argument of course also looks at what law enforcement could use it for. In a free society they can’t force apple to implement different checks without abiding to excising laws or creating new laws and thus it is upon law makers that are democratically chosen to make sure it is not misused. Yes, it can be misused by some one that successfully topples a democratic government. But again, they don’t need this specific technology to spy upon freedom fighters as there are many other ways. Both by getting access to cloud services as well as using zero days etc.

The hashing database itself is already being used by the likes of Facebook and many other cloud providers scan on the server itself for illegal content. This is not something new and thus not a slippery sloop (maybe for apple but not in the wider community)

The technology is a backdoor

It is something the checks data before it is sent, the nice thing of this idea is that is making sure it is not a backdoor on iCloud itself and thus prevents it from possible big net checks. I think it would be safe to say that it is implemented in such a way that can only be used when uploading photos to iCloud and not as an indiscriminate file scanning tool (Queue slippery slope argument).

Or as the FT reported: "Apple’s system is less invasive in that the screening is done on the phone, and “only if there is a match is notification sent back to those searching”, said Alan Woodward, a computer security professor at the University of Surrey. “This decentralised approach is about the best approach you could adopt if you do go down this route.”

Oppressive regimes don’t need this “backdoor” as they can easily shop for technology like Pegasus, demand access to servers and metadata, setup firewalls, cripple encryption or remove encrypted messaging apps from stores etc.