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Dear Free Software Supporter,

In the last few weeks, [Apple announced][1] that it will begin
actively monitoring the photos and videos stored on the iPhones of
its users in the United States. Apple is describing its
surveillance system as a way to monitor for Child Sexual Abuse
Material (CSAM), but whatever it claims it is searching for, what it
really is is a way to use proprietary software to constantly search
and spy on its users' devices. Technological ethics groups around
the world have highlighted the [grave implications][2] and dangerous
precedent these practices set for a user's privacy and right to
control their own device. In short, Apple has stated it will roll out
two types of surveillance to all iPhone models receiving a forthcoming
update: one which compares photos stored on the device to hashes of a
database of known CSAM hashes, and one which (optionally) alerts
parents of sexual materials sent from their child's iPhone.

[1]: [link removed]
[2]: [link removed]

Appealing to such an emotionally intense and important issue is a
dangerous and shrewd way for Apple to seize more control over iPhone
users. Despite the claims in its TV commercials, Apple is an enemy
of user freedom and meaningful privacy. We wouldn't agree to having
someone come and scour through our house on a whim. We especially
wouldn't agree to it if it was a person with a track record of working
against our best interests, and exploiting us for their own
profit. This is precisely the situation in which millions of Apple
users in the US find themselves. In the coming weeks, users will be
allowing Apple to comb through a portable computer containing private
messages, photos, videos, banking information, and business records;
all without anyone being able to verify what it is looking for, or
with whom it is sharing that information.

Such an action flies in the face of Apple's stated claim to care about
user privacy, one which it has taken care to widely advertise. It also
raises important questions: what makes Apple a righteous and objective
observer of the situation, and why should we trust it? We know that it
will not hesitate to capitalize on any data that it gets its hands on,
and it rarely budges when asked for more transparency. So long as its
surveillance system is proprietary, no one can verify its claims of
just *what* it is searching for, how it goes about looking for it, and
who it is delivered to. What we *can* verify is that a group of
[Princeton researchers][3] who developed what seems to be very similar
software have urged Apple not to use it. Aside from this, all we have
are the promises of a corporation that long ago showed it could not be
trusted.

[3]: [link removed]

Apple has sometimes appeared to defend users' data from law
enforcement and three-letter government agencies, and has also all too
eagerly caved. But this is only one concern. What's crucial to
remember, because it's so often glossed over, is that Apple has done
and will do nothing to protect Apple users from *Apple*, and this is
precisely the problem that users are now encountering. Apple is
completely unwilling to concede any part of the autocratic control it
has over its platforms for the benefit of its users. This is fully
intentional, and it should give us pause.

Once this precedent has been set, what will stop Apple from scanning
user devices for *other* types of photos and other materials, or stop
it from providing that information to *other* types of law
enforcement? The nonfree program that's scanning iPhones for CSAM now
could be configured to scan for another type of material, and users
would be none the wiser. There is absolutely nothing to stop Apple from
leveraging this system to perform other types of scans, such as for
pro-democracy materials on the phone of a user in a repressive state.
If Apple is willing to cave to authorities for something as small as
the [Taiwanese flag emoji][4] on Apple iPhones in mainland China, can
we *really* expect it to stand up for its users when it is asked for
data on someone deemed a political threat?

[4]: [link removed]

Apple's users should have the right to fully control what programs run
on their devices, and what data those programs send. Just last year,
[we detailed][5] the ways in which Apple prevents its users from
running apps Apple has not approved, or perhaps to put it more
clearly, to prevent users from running programs Apple doesn't like. In
that article, we highlighted the ethical problems with a notary
service of this type, and showed why such a service should be *opt-in
only*, and that users should be permitted to select a reputable
third-party other than Apple to do this notarizing for them using free
"as in freedom" software. While we implore Apple to listen to the
thousands of people asking it to change direction here, we also
implore all iPhone users to take this as a wake-up call, and to demand
not just an end to this specific abuse of proprietary software
control, but an end to the entire underlying power dynamic.

[5]: [link removed]

Things never had to be this way. While we condemn Apple's plan and
urge it to reverse it, its ability to exert autocratic influence
over the millions of Apple devices around the world stems chiefly from
the fact that these devices run a nonfree operating system: iOS. If
Apple's global community of users had control over iOS, such an
[antifeature][6] would likely never have been accepted into the code
in the first place. While Apple's advertising likes to make the claim
that their products put privacy first, a close analysis of the matter
confirms that true user privacy is [impossible without free
software][7].

[6]: [link removed]
[7]: [link removed]

The ethical aspects of such a rushed and sweeping plan are difficult
to capture all at once, and it's equally difficult to predict how
Apple's implementation of its plan will really play out. We continue
to follow the implementation of this technology closely, and while we
can't give an exhaustive analysis, we can at least leave off with a
[quote][8] that we think sums up the rights that Apple's users are
entitled to, and the demands they should make:

"We all deserve control over our digital lives. [..] It's time to
stand up for the right to privacy -- yours, mine, all of ours. This
problem is solvable -- it isn't too big, too challenging, or too
late."

[8]: [link removed]

Thanks, Tim Cook. We couldn't agree more, and we hope you'll [tell
Tim][9] you agree with him on this one, too.

[9]: [link removed]

Greg Farough
Campaigns Manager


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