Apple warns Australian proposal to force tech companies to scan cloud services could lead to mass surveillance

‘Tools of mass surveillance have widespread negative implications for freedom of opinion and expression and, by extension, democracy as a whole,’ Apple has said in response to an eSafety commissioner proposal. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images

Apple has warned an Australian proposal to force tech companies to scan cloud and messaging services for child-abuse material risks “undermining fundamental privacy and security protections” and could lead to mass surveillance with global repercussions.

Under two mandatory standards aimed at child safety released by the regulator last year, the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, proposed that providers should detect and remove child-abuse material and pro-terror material “where technically feasible” – as well as disrupt and deter new material of that nature.