Report: Apple to announce client-side photo hashing system to detect child abuse images in users’ photos libraries

Apple is reportedly set to announce new photo identification features that will use hashing algorithms to match the content of photos in users’ photo libraries with known child abuse materials, such as child pornography.

Apple’s system will happen on the client — on the user’s device — in the name of privacy, so the iPhone would download a set of fingerprints representing illegal content and then check each photo in the user’s camera roll against that list. Presumably, any matches would then be reported for human review.

Apple has previously said it employs hashing techniques as photos are uploaded to iCloud. This new system would be done on the client side, on the user’s device. Apple is yet to officially announce this new initiative, and the details will matter.

At a high level, this kind of system is similar to the machine learning features for object and scene identification already present in Apple Photos. Analysis happens on-device, and users can take advantage of better search functionality.

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