Apple Inc will roll out a system for checking photos for child abuse imagery on a country-by-country basis, depending on local laws, the company said on Friday. A day earlier, Apple said it would implement a system that screens photos for such images before they are uploaded from iPhones in the United States to its iCloud storage.

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Child safety groups praised Apple as it joined Facebook Inc, Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc`s Google in taking such measures.

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https://twitter.com/wcathcart/status/1423701473624395784 a barrage of criticism Friday against Apple for the new architecture.

"We`ve had personal computers for decades, and there has never been a mandate to scan the private content of all desktops, laptops or phones globally for unlawful content," he wrote. "It`s not how technology built in free countries works."

Apple`s experts argued that they were not really going into people`s phones because data sent on its devices must clear multiple hurdles. For example, banned material is flagged by watchdog groups, and the identifiers are bundled into Apple`s operating systems worldwide, making them harder to manipulate.

Some experts said they had one reason to hope Apple had not truly changed direction in a fundamental way.

As Reuters reported last year, the company had been working to make iCloud backups end-to-end encrypted, meaning the company could not turn over readable versions of them to law enforcement. It dropped the project https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusive-idUSKBN1ZK1CT after the FBI objected.

Apple may be setting the stage to turn on the encryption later this year, using this week`s measures to head off anticipated criticism of that change, said Stanford Observatory founder Alex Stamos.
Apple declined to comment on future product plans.