Apple should scan iPhones for child abuse images, says scanning technology inventor

Prof Hany Farid says all online services should adopt idea backed by GCHQ and National Cybersecurity Centre

Apple should take heed of warnings from the UK's security services and revive its controversial plans to scan iPhones for child abuse imagery, the inventor of the scanning technology has argued.

Prof Hany Farid, an expert in image analysis at University of California, Berkeley, is the inventor of PhotoDNA, an image hashing" technique used by companies across the web to identify and remove illegal images. He said that, following an intervention from the technical leads of GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre backing an extension of the technology on to individual phones, Apple should be emboldened to revive its shelved plans to do just that.