Journalists' associations demand halt to Apple surveillance
Journalists' associations from Switzerland, Germany, and Austria are calling for a halt to Apple's planned surveillance of mobile phones in Europe. In a joint statement, the associations assert that local surveillance of smartphones violates freedom of the press.
Apple had announced a system for tracking down child pornography photos. As a result, critics warned that an authoritarian state could try to sneak pictures with political motives into the database in order to find out who has them on their cell phones.
The concerns of the journalists' associations of the German-speaking countries aim in the same direction. As they write in a joint appeal to their state governments and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen published on Tuesday, they protest against the Apple company's intention.
Confidential information
All journalists have confidential content on their smartphones, former Swiss U.S. correspondent Priscilla Imboden of the SSM media union was quoted as saying in a press release. It cannot be that an American private company judges the admissibility of content and also wants to view and forward it.
It is a relatively short way from the alleged surveillance of the child porn scene to checking the user data of opponents of the regime in Turkey or the LGBT community in Hungary. Confidential data on smartphones would thus be put at risk, and research would be massively hampered.
Moreover, it is only a matter of time before what is starting in the U.S. comes to Europe. The journalists' associations are therefore calling on the relevant authorities to put a stop to the Apple group's plans for all European countries. (SDA)
