Apple taking ‘wrong approach’ to fight child abuse: WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart

Will Cathcart has spoken out against the new CSAM system by Apple

Apple has announced that it will start scanning iPhones in the US for material related to CSAM (child sexual abuse material). Apple's method involves scanning images on-device and cross referencing them with a database of known CSAM images provided by NCMEC and other child safety organisations.

If the system believes that there is material on a device that relates to CSAM, then the images are sent to human reviewers who then contact the law authorities if the need arises.

While the goal is noble, Apple's methods have raised questions about potential privacy violations that this may entail. A lot of researchers have already spoken out against the technology.

Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart has now tweeted his response to the news.

I read the information Apple put out yesterday and I'm concerned. I think this is the wrong approach and a setback for people's privacy all over the world.

People have asked if we'll adopt this system for WhatsApp. The answer is no.

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— Will Cathcart (@wcathcart) August 6, 2021

He says that Apple needed to do something to fight CSAM but the measures they have taken set a dangerous precedent.

Instead of working on better systems to flag and report CSAM, Apple has instead decided to build software to scan photos on your phone. Even ones that you have not explicitly shared with anyone else.

Researchers so far have also been denied access to the software to find out if its error-proof. Apple has said that the chances of the system flagging an account incorrectly is extremely low and all claims are manually reviewed but that still does not make it error-proof.

"This is an Apple built and operated surveillance system that could very easily be used to scan private content for anything they or a government decides it wants to control," says Cathcart in a tweet.