Australia Finds Gaps in Microsoft, Apple’s Child Protection Measures

An Australian regulator, after utilizing new powers to make the tech giants share details about their strategies, accused Apple and Microsoft not doing sufficient to cease youngster exploitation content material on their platforms.

The e-Safety Commissioner, an workplace set as much as defend web customers, mentioned that after sending authorized calls for for data to among the world’s largest web companies, the responses confirmed Apple and Microsoft didn’t proactively display for youngster abuse materials of their storage companies, iCloud and OneDrive.

The two companies additionally confirmed they didn’t use any know-how to detect live-streaming of kid sexual abuse on video companies Skype and Microsoft Teams, that are owned by Microsoft and FaceTime, which is owned by Apple, the commissioner mentioned in a report revealed on Thursday.

A Microsoft spokesperson mentioned the corporate was dedicated to combatting proliferation of abuse materials however “as threats to children’s safety continue to evolve and bad actors become more sophisticated in their tactics, we continue to challenge ourselves to adapt our response”.

Apple was not instantly accessible for remark.

The disclosure confirms gaps within the youngster safety measures of among the world’s largest tech companies, constructing public strain on them to do extra, in response to the commissioner. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and Snapchat proprietor Snap additionally obtained calls for for data.

The responses total have been “alarming” and raised considerations of “clearly inadequate and inconsistent use of widely available technology to detect child abuse material and grooming”, commissioner Julie Inman Grant mentioned in an announcement.

Microsoft and Apple “do not even attempt to proactively detect previously confirmed child abuse material” on their storage companies, though a Microsoft-developed detection product is utilized by regulation enforcement companies.

An Apple announcement every week in the past that it could cease scanning iCloud accounts for youngster abuse, following strain from privateness advocates, was “a major step backwards from their responsibilities to help keep children safe” Inman Grant mentioned.

The failure of each companies to detect live-streamed abuse amounted to “some of the biggest and richest technology companies in the world turning a blind eye and failing to take appropriate steps to protect the most vulnerable from the most predatory”, she added.

© Thomson Reuters 2022