Happy Nice Mall

LONDON (AP) — Apple said Friday it is delaying its plan to scan US iPhones for child sexual abuse images and needs more time to improve the system before it’s released.

The company announced last month that it was working on a tool that would work by scanning files before uploading them to iCloud to detect known images of child sexual abuse. It also planned to introduce a separate tool for scanning users’ encrypted messages for obscene content.

“Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we’ve decided to take additional time in the coming months to gather input and make improvements before releasing these critical child safety features,” Apple said. Top of a company webpage detailing device scanning plans.

Apple said in its initial announcement that the latest changes will be available this year as part of updates to the operating software for iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches.

Matthew Green, a senior cryptography researcher at Johns Hopkins University, warned in August that the system could be used to frame innocent people by sending them seemingly harmless images designed to trigger matches for child pornography. This could fool Apple’s algorithm and alert law enforcement.

Shortly after Green and privacy advocates sounded the warnings, a developer claimed to have found a way to reverse-engineer the working matching tool by recognizing mathematical “fingerprints” that represent an image.

Green said on Friday that Apple’s delay was the right move, and suggested that the company speak to the technical and policy communities and the general public before making such a major change that threatens the privacy of everyone’s photo library.

“You need to build support before you start something like this,” he said in an interview. “This was a huge escalation from scanning almost nothing to scanning private files.”