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More than a dozen leading cybersecurity experts on Thursday criticized Apple and the European Union’s plans to monitor people’s phones for illegal material, calling the efforts ineffective and dangerous strategies to strengthen government surveillance.

Inside 46 page workThe researchers wrote that Apple’s proposal aimed at detecting images of child sexual abuse on iPhones, as well as an idea forwarded by members of the European Union to detect similar images of abuse and terrorism on encrypted devices in Europe, uses “dangerous technology.” ”

“Resisting attempts to spy on and influence law-abiding citizens should be a national security priority,” the researchers wrote.

The technology, known as client-side scanning, allows Apple, or potentially law enforcement officials in Europe, to detect images of child sexual abuse on someone’s phone by scanning images uploaded to Apple’s iCloud storage service.

when apple Announced vehicle planned in AugustThe so-called fingerprint of the image will be compared with a database of known child sexual abuse materials to look for possible matches, he said.

But the plan has sparked an uproar among privacy advocates, raising fears that the technology could erode digital privacy and eventually be used by authoritarian governments to track down political opponents and other enemies.

Apple said it would reject such requests from foreign governments, but the backlash made it Pause the launch of the scan tool in September. The company declined to comment on the report released Thursday.

Cybersecurity researchers said they started their work before Apple’s announcement. documents A meeting with EU officials broadcast by the European Union last year led them to believe that the bloc’s governing body wanted a similar program that would screen not only images of child sexual abuse, but also signs of organized crime and terrorist ties.

Researchers believe a proposal to allow photo scanning in the European Union could come as soon as this year.

He said they are now releasing their findings to inform the European Union about the dangers of his plan, and that “the expansion of state surveillance powers is really crossing a red line”. Cambridge University and a member of the group.

Along with surveillance concerns, the researchers said their findings show that the technology is not effective at identifying images of child sexual abuse. In the days following Apple’s announcement, they said, people showed off ways to avoid detection by slightly editing images.

Another member of the group, Susan Landau, professor of cybersecurity and policy at Tufts University, added that the technology allows “scanning of a personal private device with no probable cause for anything illegal to be done.” “Extraordinarily dangerous. Dangerous to business, national security, public safety and privacy.”