Device Scanning By Cops Causes Outrage

Three cyber security experts say proposals to scan user devices for illegal material will do more harm than good. They've condemned European proposals to deal with illegal collection of child abuse images.

The argument is about "client-side scanning" which means looking for images or other material on a user's device, rather than waiting until the images are uploaded to the Internet.

It's a controversial practice that Apple has previously explored. It appears to have dropped plans to scan iPhones to look for specific images that matched a database in which children were abused.

Although Apple said this would work in a way that didn't compromise privacy, many critics disagreed. Researchers also showed the Apple plans had a serious risk of false positives with perfectly legitimate images flagged as harmful.

Encryption Could Be Challenged

Now the European Commission, which develops proposals for politicians to consider making law, has suggested using client-side scanning by law enforcement officials to find such material. It's also suggested restricting or even banning the use of end-to-end encryption that would make such scanning difficult or impossible.

A research paper titled "YASM (Yet Another Surveillance Mechanism)" has strongly criticized the proposals. It's the work of academics Angela Daly, Kaspar Rosager Ludvigsen and Shishir Naharaja. (Source: arxiv.org)

They say using such technology is a matter of weighing up benefits against harm. On the former point, they question the effectiveness of client-side scanning for harmful images.

"Routine" Privacy Breach

They point to anti-malware software that uses client-side scanning to look for threats. Although it certainly detects some threats, nobody seriously argues that it is completely effective and finds all malware.

On the latter point, they say client-side scanning will violate privacy rights "routinely or constantly", creating a risk of harm that can never be justified by the potential benefit.

They also argue that the technology violates several established human rights and could create unfair trials, with defendants unable to challenge the evidence against them because it was gathered through a secret algorithm. (Source: theregister.com)

What's Your Opinion?

Is there any justification for routinely scanning user devices? What, if any, limitations would adequately mitigate the risk of harm? Do you think lawmakers understand technology well enough to regulate it?