Shortly after reports today that Apple will start scanning iPhones for child-abuse images, the company confirmed its plan and provided details in a news release and technical summary.
"Apple’s method of detecting known CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is designed with user privacy in mind," Apple’s announcement said. "Instead of scanning images in the cloud, the system performs on-device matching using a database of known CSAM image hashes provided by NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) and other child security organizations. Apple further transforms this database into an unreadable set of hashes that is securely stored on users’ devices."
Sources:
- https://www.apple.com/child-safety/
- https://twitter.com/privacyfan2021/status/1423416383992340483
- https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/Apple_PSI_System_Security_Protocol_and_Analysis.pdf
- https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/CSAM_Detection_Technical_Summary.pdf
How much is your palm print worth? If you ask Amazon, it’s about $10 in promotional credit if you enroll your palm prints in its checkout-free stores and link it to your Amazon account.
Last year, Amazon introduced its new biometric palm print scanners, Amazon One, so customers can pay for goods in some stores by waving their palm prints over one of these scanners. By February, the company expanded its palm scanners to other Amazon grocery, book and 4-star stores across Seattle.
Source:
- https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/02/amazon-credit-palm-biometrics/
Earlier this spring, Google announced the development of a new safety section coming to the Play Store next year, and today Google is now following up with more details on the kind of information apps will be required to provide including new mandatory privacy policies.
Google says that by announcing guidelines for its safety section now, Google hopes app developers will have enough time to respond to upcoming changes before the safety section officially goes live in Q1 2022. And while Google is still figuring out the final design of the safety section, it has also provided some early mock-ups of what it might look like ahead of its arrival next year.
Source:
- https://gizmodo.com/google-will-require-all-apps-on-the-play-store-to-have-1847376846
A group of privacy-first tech companies have published an open letter today asking EU and US regulators to take action and ban surveillance-based advertising.
Surveillance-based advertising refers to a common practice in the advertising industry where companies amass large quantities of personal identifiers, which they then use to track users across the web, including across platforms and devices, in order to deliver highly customized ads.
The practice has been in use for almost two decades and has been widely criticized, and has led to the rise of ad blockers as a response from users looking to preserve their privacy.
Sources:
- https://therecord.media/protonmail-duckduckgo-others-ask-eu-us-regulators-to-ban-surveillance-based-advertising/
- https://vivaldi.com/blog/letter-ban-surveillance-based-advertising/
Apple unveiled a new slate of privacy features in WWDC, which is to debut with iOS 15 this fall. The upcoming operating system will include a "privacy report" that informs users about which applications collect their personal data. The report will tell users when an app accessed their iPhone’s photo album, microphone or contact lists. Apple also announced its Mail app will offer more privacy protections and revealed a new service to hide online traffic from internet providers.
Source:
- https://iapp.org/news/a/apple-unveils-new-privacy-features-for-ios-15/
