For the past few months, we've been quietly building a standalone X Chat app for iOS. Use it. Break it. We want your feedback. The company will expand the beta beyond the initial 1,000 users soon, though no specific timeline was provided for broader availability.
West Virginia has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of allowing the distribution and storage of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in iCloud. In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey claims that by abandoning a CSAM detection system in favor of end-to-end encryption, iCloud has become a "secure frictionless avenue for the possession, protection, and distribution [of] CSAM," violating the state's consumer protection laws.
After a years-long battle, the European Commission's "Chat Control" plan, which would mandate mass scanning and other encryption-breaking measures, at last codifies agreement on a position within the Council of the EU, representing EU States. The good news is that the most controversial part, the forced requirement to scan encrypted messages, is out. The bad news is there's more to it than that.
"Following successful small-scale tests over the past months, the option for WhatsApp users to chat with users of messaging apps BirdyChat and Haiket directly via third-party chats will soon be rolling out across Europe," Meta wrote in a blog post. "This marks a significant milestone in Meta's compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) interoperability requirements."
Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director of the campaign group Privacy International, said the new order might be "just as big a threat to worldwide security and privacy" as the old one. She said: "If Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone. The resulting vulnerability can be exploited by hostile states, criminals, and other bad actors the world over."
If true, this new order is not 'less worse' than the first. That's because, as we have been saying all along, Apple cannot undermine end-to-end encryption of iCloud services only for the UK when those services are used worldwide. If Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone. The resulting vulnerability can be exploited by hostile states, criminals and other bad actors the world over.
The Tribunal plans a seven-day public hearing to address Apple's and PI's challenges regarding the UK order impacting iCloud's security, based on assumed facts.
