Apple is facing legal action in the United States after a prosecutor accused its iCloud online storage service of enabling the storage and distribution of images of sexual acts involving minors. The lawsuit was filed by West Virginia Attorney General John Bohen McCuskey.
In a statement released Thursday, the Republican official accused the company of "allowing the use of iCloud to store and distribute" child pornography. "Protecting the privacy of child predators is absolutely inexcusable," he said, denouncing the lack of systematic analysis of the data hosted on the platform.
For several years, Apple has refused to implement widespread monitoring of files stored on iCloud, citing the risk of privacy violations and a slide towards "mass surveillance." The company argues that automated content analysis could be misused by authorities for purposes other than child protection.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesperson for the company defended the existing systems, asserting that "all of our parental control features and advanced functionalities are designed with the security and privacy of our users at their core." Since 2021, Apple devices with parental controls have displayed a warning when nudity is detected in the Messages app, in shared photos, via AirDrop, or during FaceTime calls.
In a 2023 letter to a children's rights organization, Apple justified its refusal to allow continuous monitoring of user data. "Analysis to detect, for example, a certain type of content opens the door to mass surveillance," the company wrote, questioning the safeguards against the potential expansion of these tools to other areas, such as political or religious activity.
