Are Apple’s Tools Against Child Abuse Bad for Your Privacy?

The backlash to Apple’s efforts to fight child sexual abuse show that in the debate between privacy and security, there are few easy answers.

Apple unveiled a plan two weeks ago founded in good intentions: Root out images of child sexual abuse from iPhones. But as is often the case when changes are made to digital privacy and security, technology experts quickly identified the downside: Apple’s approach to scanning people’s private photos could give law enforcement authorities and governments a new way to surveil citizens and persecute dissidents. Once one chip in privacy armor is identified, anyone can attack it, they argued. The conflicting concerns laid bare an intractable issue that the tech industry seems no closer to solving today than when Apple first fought with the F.B.I. over a dead terrorist’s iPhone five years ago.