Apple’s iMessage could also be facing its hardest test yet
No sooner has Apple finally confirmed the launch of RCS messaging alongside iMessage than something much greater comes along and shakes every part up. We’ve known for a while that 2024 can be a giant 12 months for messaging, but it surely seems that while the landscape is about to alter ceaselessly, it is not going to be in a very good way.
As expected, Apple unveiled RCS at its WWDC event – essentially an upgrade to SMS. No surprises there. Green bubbles stay green, security stays limited, at the very least for now, and the partitions of iMessage’s walled garden remain largely intact.
However, RCS will soon be pushed into the background. Europe’s attackers usually are not completely happy with the changes already forced on Apple and its competitors. Not only are they facing heavy fines as Brussels investigates compliance with App Store rules, but iMessage is now firmly of their sights. They intend to agree on something before the top of June.
Putting aside the exciting AI and RCS news from WWDC, the largest change to the iPhone this 12 months was more regulatory than revolutionary. Brussels’ Eurocrats forced Apple to divulge heart’s contents to third-party app stores and let users select which Apple default apps to maintain and which to delete. Competition 1 – Safety 0.
And now to iMessage, and a similarly troubling recent risk from the identical source. This time it’s about law enforcement not gaining access to the fully encrypted content transmitted through iMessage (and WhatsApp, Signal, Google Messages, Facebook Messenger). With end-to-end encryption, only the sender and receiver can decrypt content, so intercepting the info stream is unproductive. Security and law enforcement agencies have lobbied for backdoors to be inbuilt so that they can eavesdrop, industry has said a powerful no to this, and parliaments have up to now agreed.
But Europe is undeterred and has a shiny recent idea within the spirit of CSAM prevention – a harder battle for giant tech firms than mainstream law enforcement. Think of this as a backdoor inserted into the concept of a backdoor.
When the concept got here up earlier this 12 months, crypto expert Matthew Green said described Parts of the proposal called it “the most terrifying thing I have ever seen… a new mass surveillance system that reads private text messages not to detect CSAM but to detect ‘grooming.'” That nightmarish prospect is now much closer.
Signal has confirmed it can leave EU markets somewhat than adapt. Apple reportedly considered the identical thing when the UK was investigating its own encryption compromises. These EU proposals look rather more realistic, and last 12 months 9to5Mac connected the dots and warned that these rather more realistic EU proposals may lead to Apple withdrawing iMessage.
In their capability as chair of the Council of Europe, the world-renowned – or not – technical experts of the Belgian government have give you a clever trick. Users must comply with have media attachments scanned for CSAM characteristics (images, videos, URLs) on the device side. Otherwise, they may now not have the option to send attachments and can be limited to plain text.
This idea was called “Chat control“ and yes, it’s as silly because it sounds.
Usually, such proposals come and go and don’t stick. We have definitely seen this before when it got here to compromises on encryption. But Europe is on a winning track and this concept isn’t going away. It can be discussed and redesigned. But it can remain.
The EU Parliament had rejected more comprehensive backdoors for encryption, but this recent compromise is gaining support. The Netherlands has now declared that it “partly agrees” with the most recent Belgian proposal for chat control and Network policy warns that it could grow to be even stricter. “Several states criticize the restriction to photographs and videos. Ireland fears that chat control ‘is losing its effectiveness’. Denmark demands that ‘texts must even be covered’… Many states support the essential approach of the brand new proposals. These include chat control advocates reminiscent of Romania, Bulgaria and Denmark.”
Regardless, but emphasizing how serious Europe’s attack on the massive tech firms could grow to be, The Financial Times has reported that “Brussels is planning to sue Apple for allegedly hindering competition in its mobile app store. This is the first time that EU regulators have used new digital rules to target a Big Tech group.”
This could end in billions in fines.
None of us really expected Apple to divulge heart’s contents to other app stores, or WhatsApp to launch its messaging chat hub – but now it’s. What is currently being considered in Brussels is rather more significant. Once scanning on devices is mandatory, there is no such thing as a turning back. CSAM will expand to serious crime and counterterrorism, after which we get into the areas of political disagreement and even sexual niches. Where platforms are capable of do that, this opens the door to the drafting of local laws.
“We are concerned about developments in the Council of the EU,” warned a joint industry statement published at the top of May“We call on ministers in the Council of the EU to reject all scanning proposals that are incompatible with the principle of end-to-end encryption, including client-side scanning and upload moderation, and to guarantee the protection of digital rights throughout the proposal. These intrusive techniques would only endanger the security and rights of internet users.”
But there’s a very good probability Europe will call the massive tech firms’ bluff, as Apple’s iMessage, Signal and Meta’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger face a serious selection. And bravado aside, DMA has shown that while big tech firms will warn of consequences, they can be reluctant to comply. This is a rather more significant test.
This is reportedly being discussed in private to give you a workable proposal that states can agree on before the top of June. This concerns you. This is serious. The industry has shown no willingness to interact on this discussion and tolerate anything of this type, but Europe has been just as stubborn over the past 12 months. Apple and its competitors have forced the UK to back down on the problem. The query now could be whether or not they can do the identical here.
