Apple is all set to allow TOR anonymity apps on iOS9, which will be the part of its ongoing effort to defend their user’s privacy.
A fascinating part of this news that the apps are coming for Apple devices when U.S and UK government are in discussions on future of encryption and anonymity online.
All the Tor apps will be available free of cost on all Apple iPad and iPhone. Though, no date for the launch has been announced yet. One can, however, suspect that it would be very soon.
This project for increasing encryption and safeguarding user’s privacy is being driven by a team of developers who are focused on developing apps and software that can easily protect the users from unwanted surveillance programs. This project is known as iCepa.
“There are a bunch of pieces in the works,” Nathan Freitas, a Tor developer supporting the iCepa project, told The Daily Dot. “We just started to work on it and think about it. Tor knows we can’t ignore all the iOS 9 users in the world.”
Nathan is also working on the Guardian Project that develops apps keeping in mind the users’ privacy.
Tor is often confused with the dark web (in reality 95 percent of these dark web platforms are not indexed by any of the search engines even google), but Tor is very different to the dark web it is something for anonymity or privacy on the web.
Tor browsers and apps gained popularity last year after Edward Snowden leaked several documents related surveillance programs related to NSA.
Basically, what Tor does is that it hides the IP addresses of the users visiting the website so that they cannot be spied on. So, the basic objective is to hide users from surveillance programs. However, law enforcement agencies find such services as a way of covering criminals or terrorists.
Many leading tech firms from around the world have strongly supported the argument of maintaining strong encryption on the overall web and mobile applications.
To make the case even stronger, all the tech firms in Silicon Valley launched a petition to the U.S president to support encryption. The petition so far has received 80,000 signatures and still counting.
The petition further states that proposals from the government are a threat to the user’s private data and also to the security of any technology that relies on encryption. But, the FBI is not happy with the tech companies equipping their devices with default encryption.
In 2014, the FBI chief showed disappointment over Apple obtaining default encryption for its devices.
Earlier this week Apple told a judge that it is now “impossible” to access any data from Apple devices. Though, the company can still access data from older phones.
![Child sexual abuse is a burning issue right now. It's a sad reality that people are forcing innocent kids to participate in torturous sexual acts to make money. Thankfully, the tech community is working towards eliminating this social evil. [wp_ad_camp_4] Reportedly, Apple will be launching a new machine learning-based system to be released later this year as part of the upcoming versions of iOS and iPadOS to ensure enhanced child safety. The system will scan iPhones across the USA to detect the presence of child sexual abuse images. Moreover, the messages app in iPhones will issue a warning whenever a child part of iCloud Family receives or tries to send sexually explicit images. About the New CSAM System Apple has developed a system dubbed neuralMatch to located child sexual abuse material/CSAM, and it will scan US customers' devices. The system will be launched soon amidst reservations from the cybersecurity fraternity as they claim authoritative governments could misuse the system to perform surveillance on their citizens. However, Apple claims that the system is a new "application of cryptography" to limit the distribution of CSAM online without impacting user privacy. How NeuralMatch Works? The new system will find matches for already known/available CSAM before storing an image in iCloud Photos. If a match is found, a human reviewer will conduct a thorough assessment and notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about that user, and the account will be disabled. "This innovative new technology allows Apple to provide valuable and actionable information to NCMEC and law enforcement regarding the proliferation of known CSAM," Apple noted. [wp_ad_camp_4] "Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes," and the system has "extremely high level of accuracy and ensures less than a one in one trillion chance per year of incorrectly flagging a given account," the company wrote. Could It be Exploited? Critics of this system have raised concerns that this technology might be expanded for scanning phones for banned/prohibited content or political views/speech. In addition to this, Apple is planning to scan users' encrypted messages to locate sexually explicit content as a separate child safety measure. It is worth noting that the detection system will flag images of child pornography already present in the center's database. So, parents need not worry about it. According to John Hopkins University's top cryptography researcher, Matthew Green, this system can be used to target and trap innocent people by sending them objectionable images to trigger a match with child porn images. Apple's algorithm could be fooled easily, and anyone could be framed because such systems are easily tricked. "Researchers have been able to do this pretty easily. What happens when the Chinese government says, 'Here is a list of files that we want you to scan for… Does Apple say no? I hope they say no, but their technology won't say no," Green stated. [wp_ad_camp_4] Did you enjoy reading this article? Like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.](https://hackread.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/apple-scan-us-iphones-for-child-sexual-abuse-content.jpg)
