The method creates a vulnerable access point that malicious hackers could exploit, while reducing privacy. The server checks the hashed signature against a database of illegal images before releasing the encrypted message.Ī “backdoor” allows service providers or government bodies access to a server to decrypt and assess the content of specific communications. Software sends both the hashed signature of a user’s message and the encrypted message to a server. There are risks of users reverse-engineering or subverting the detection tools. It is not clear how feasible updating the database would be. The technology could be incorporated into operating systems. ![]() Mobile phones or computers can be fitted with software that creates a digital signature of images and compares them against the signatures of harmful content stored in a database on the device before it is encrypted. How technology can reduce risks of end-to-end encryption Device solutions There is widespread concern that any attempt to weaken end-to-end encryption, for example by adding government-accessible “backdoors”, will damage the safety and security of ordinary people who are not suspected of any crime. ![]() Weakening encryption will put people at risk of crime “We need a coordinated response across society, but ultimately government must be a guardrail that protects child users if tech companies choose to put them at risk with dangerous design choices,” said Wanless. “Private messaging is at the front line of child sexual abuse, but the current debate around end-to-end encryption risks leaving children unprotected where there is most harm,” he said.įacebook’s proposals for end-to-end encryption are particularly high risk, the NSPCC says, because groomers can exploit the platform to contact children in large numbers and can groom and coerce them into sending images on encrypted chats and video calls. The NSPCC’s chief executive, Peter Wanless, argues that end-to-end encryption could “render useless” the technology used by social media companies to identify child abuse images and to detect grooming and sexual abuse in private messages. Encryption poses threat to detection of child abuseĪ report published by the NSPCC today, based on research from PA Consulting, argues that tech companies have prioritised the privacy of adults over their duty of care to children. The NSPCC will present research at the event – which will be attended by child protection, civil society and law enforcement experts from the UK, US, Canada, Ireland and Australia – to show that more than half of UK adults believe the ability to detect child abuse images is more important than the protection of privacy.Įnd-to-end encryption is widely used by internet messaging services such as Signal, Telegram, email services including Protonmail and, and Facebook’s own WhatsApp messaging service, to protect the privacy of personal data and messages. ![]() The Home Office estimates that 12 million reports of potential child abuse could be lost if Facebook introduces end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger and Instagram, significantly increasing the risk of child exploitation or other serious harm. “The offending will continue, the images of children being abused will proliferate – but the company intends to blind itself to this problem through end-to-end encryption which prevents all access to messaging content.” “Sadly, at a time when we need to be taking more action, Facebook is pursuing end-to-end encryption plans that place the good work and progress achieved so far in jeopardy,” she is expected to say. Speaking at a roundtable organised by the NSPCC to discuss the “next steps to securing child protection within end-to-end encryption”, Patel will warn that end-to-end encryption could deprive law enforcement of millions of reports of activities that could put children at risk. The home secretary’s intervention is the latest salvo in a long-running battle by ministers and the intelligence services against the growth of end-to-end encryption.
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