La resolución de Apple de postergar la introducción de su discutido sistema de detección CSAM de escaneo del lado del usuario (CSS) semeja una idea todavía mejor, puesto que los gobiernos ya desean emplear las discutidas herramientas para otras formas de vigilancia.</p><h2><strong>Un peligroso</strong> La tecnologia'</h2><p>En un nuevo informe, un conjunto influyente de catorce estudiosos de seguridad con renombre internacional afirmó que semejantes planes representan "tecnología peligrosa" que amplía los poderes de vigilancia del estado. Advierten que el sistema de escaneo del lado del usuario, si se utiliza, "sería considerablemente más intrusivo para la privacidad que las propuestas precedentes para desgastar el cifrado". En vez de leer el contenido de las comunicaciones cifradas, CSS brinda a las fuerzas del orden la capacidad de buscar de forma recóndita no solamente las comunicaciones, sino más bien asimismo la información guardada en los dispositivos de los usuarios.
These voices join a chorus of like-minded voices, including civil liberties activists, privacy advocates and tech industry critics who have previously warned that the plans threaten basic human rights. While the system Apple announced seemed well-intentioned, there were many concerns about using on-device analytics against databases of images in the form of digital hash data. After all, if a device can be scanned for one thing, it can easily be expanded to search for other things. It turns out that certain governments work on exactly this. The New York Times reports the latest findings from a group of cybersecurity scholars who examined such proposals before Apple's announcement.
The EU wants CSS
Scholars say they began studying the technology before Apple's announcement in response to moves by EU (European Union) leaders to insist on such a system. Scholars think that a proposal to make photo scanning mandatory in the European Union could come this year and extend beyond CSAM to also include scanning for evidence of organized crime and terrorist activity. The extension of the research areas is an alarm signal. The downside is that what in many countries is considered ordinary behavior is criminalized in others. A search for criminal material could easily be extended to become a search for evidence of homosexuality, for example, which is a capital offense in certain countries. Since the European Union could now force Apple to activate its system to scan CSAM material and also insist that it investigate other wrongdoing, any government, including tyrannical governments, could sue what they want. Apple said it would resist, but the truth is that it could not. Interestingly, a set of crimes that has yet to be proposed for such surveillance includes fraud, tax evasion, and tax evasion, although such simplicity can easily be extended to these areas.
Expert warnings
Apple has tried to characterize the resistance it encountered to its initial proposals as little more than messaging confusion. Apologists have tried to cover it up with arguments about how most Internet actions can be detected (which, in turn, undermines the use of online payment systems). Critics say both apologies seem wrong on the part of a company that prides itself on its privacy, especially in the absence of an internationally recognized digital human rights bill. Many think that such proposals represent a Pandora's box of horrors that lead to unrestricted supervision and state overreach. One big drawback that recent scholars warn about is that the scheme scans a person's devices "without probable cause in order for something illegal to be done." Susan Landau, a professor of cybersecurity and politics at Tufts University, said: “It's outrageously dangerous. It is dangerous for business, national security, public safety, and privacy. "The extension of the state's surveillance powers really crosses the red line," said Ross Anderson, a security engineering master at Cambridge University.
One door opens, another opens
But for many users, especially business users, they envision bigger threats. "As most user devices have vulnerabilities, the monitoring and control capabilities provided by CSS can potentially be exploited by many adversaries, from hostile state actors and criminals to close associates of users," the report warns. "In addition to this, the opacity of mobile operating systems makes it difficult to verify that CSS policies only target non-disputed material." Indeed, once such a system is up and running, it is only a matter of time until criminal entities figure out how to mine it, expand it to reveal valuable personal or business data, or introduce false positives against political opponents. . The report "Failures in our pockets: the dangers of user-side scanning" is free in its entirety here. Follow me on Twitter or join me at the AppleHolic bar & grill and Apple discussion groups on MeWe.
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