CDT Runs Campaign, Urging Apple Inc. to Withdraw its Abuse Prevention Policy

“Our main concern is the consequence of this mechanism, how this could be extended to other situations and other companies.”

Apple Inc. has recently decided to scan children’s messages for nudity and the phones of adults for images of child sex abuse. As a result, a US-based non-profit, Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) ran a campaign, urging the smartphone maker to reverse its decision.

According to a Reuters report, as many as 90 policy and rights groups across the world have voiced their concern, publishing a joint open letter. This is the largest campaign run over an encryption issue at a single company.

This was reported on Thursday.

“Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material, we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children,” the groups wrote in the letter.

The signatories belong to Brazil, India, Germany, Argentina, Tanzania, Ghana, and Mexico.

“Our main concern is the consequence of this mechanism, how this could be extended to other situations and other companies,” said Flavio Wagner, president of the independent Brazil chapter of the Internet Society, which signed. “This represents a serious weakening of encryption.”

The co-director of CDT’s Security and Surveillance Project, Sharon Bradford Franklin, said that it’s disappointing to see Apple doing this as it was one of the first companies that defended encryption in the past.