EFF Joins Global Coalition Asking Apple CEO Tim Cook to Stop Phone-Scanning

EFF has joined the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and more than 90 other organizations to send a letter urging Apple CEO Tim Cook to stop the company’s plans to weaken privacy and security on Apple’s iPhones and other products.

SIGN THE PETITION

TELL APPLE: DON’T SCAN OUR PHONES

“Though these capabilities are intended to protect children and to reduce the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), we are concerned that they will be used to censor protected speech, threaten the privacy and security of people around the world, and have disastrous consequences for many children,” the letter states. 

As we’ve explained in Deeplinks blog posts, Apple’s planned phone-scanning system opens the door to broader abuses. It decreases privacy for all iCloud photo users, and the parental notification system is a shift away from strong end-to-end encryption. It will tempt liberal democratic regimes to increase surveillance, and likely bring even great pressures from regimes that already have online censorship ensconced in law.

We’re proud to join with organizations around the world in opposing this change, including CDT, ACLU, PEN America, Access Now, Privacy International, Derechos Digitales, and many others. If you haven’t already, please sign EFF’s petition opposing Apple’s phone surveillance. 

SIGN THE PETITION

TELL APPLE: DON’T SCAN OUR PHONES

Further reading: 

• The full letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook signed by EFF and coalition partners
• Apple’s Plan to “Think Different” About Encryption Opens a Backdoor to Your Private Life
• If You Build It, They Will Come: Apple Has Opened the Backdoor to Increased Surveillance and Censorship Around the World
• How LGBTQ+ Content is Censored Under the Guise of “Sexually Explicit”