Facebook's Former Security Chief Discusses Controversy Around Apple's Planned Child Safety …

Amid the ongoing controversy around Apple’s plans to implement new child safety features that would involve scanning messages and users’ photos libraries, Facebook’s former security chief, Alex Stamos, has weighed into the debate with criticisms of multiple parties involved and suggestions for the future. In an extensive Twitter thread, Stamos said that there are “no easy answers” in the debate around child protection versus personal privacy. Stamos expressed his frustration with the way in which Apple handled the announcement of the new features and criticized the company for not engaging in wider industry discussions around the safety and privacy aspects of end-to-end encryption in recent years. Apple was invited but declined to participate in these discussions, and with this announcement they just busted into the balancing debate and pushed everybody into the furthest corners with no public consultation or debate. Likewise, Stamos said that he was disappointed with various NGOs, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), for leaving little room for discussion in their public statements. The NCMEC, for example, called Apple employees that questioned the privacy implications of the new features “the screeching voices of the minority.” “Apple’s public…
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