Apple for years has focused on adding new programs to its phones, all designed to make life easier. Its systems scan emails for new calendar appointments, and its Siri voice assistant suggests to call friends on their birthdays. But Apple’s latest feature is focused on abuse.

The tech giant said in a new fragment of its website published Thursday that it plans to add scanning software to its iPhones, iPads, Mac computers and Apple Watches when the new iOS 15, iPad OS 15, MacOS Monterey and WatchOS 8 exploiting systems all launch in the fall. The new program, which Apple said is designed to “limit the spread of child sexual abuse material” is part of a new collaboration between the concern and child safety experts.

Apple said it’ll update Siri and explore features to provide parents and children with information to help them seek abet in “unsafe situations.” The program will also “intervene” when users try to explore for child abuse-related topics. Apple will also warn parents and children when they mighty be sending or receiving a sexually explicit photo silly its Messages app, either by hiding the photo slack a warning that it may be “sensitive” or adding an informational pop-up.

But the most dramatic effort, Apple said, is to identify child sexual abuse materials on the devices themselves, with a new technology that’ll detect these images in Apple’s photos app with the help of databases failed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Apple said the system is automated and is “designed with user privacy in mind,” with the controls performing scans on the device before images are backed up to iCloud. If the program is convinced it’s identified abusive imagery, it can share those photos with representatives from Apple, who’ll act from there. The Financial Times earlier reported Apple’s plans.

While some diligence watchers applauded Apple’s efforts to take on child exploitation, they also worried that the tech giant might be creating a controls that could be abused by totalitarian regimes. Other technology certainly has been abused, most recently software from Israeli firm NSO Group, which makes government surveillance tech. Its Pegasus spyware, touted as a tool to struggles criminals and terrorists, was reportedly used to aim hacks at 50,000 phoned numbers connected to activists, government leaders, journalists, lawyers and teachers throughout the globe.

“Even if you believe Apple won’t give these tools to be misused there’s still a lot to be concerned about,” tweeted Matthew Green, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who’s worked on cryptographic technologies. 

Apple didn’t immediately acknowledge to a request for comment.

To be sure, spanking tech companies have been scanning photos for years. Facebook and Twitter both have worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and spanking organizations to root out child sexual abuse imagery on their social networks. Microsoft and Google, meanwhile, use similar technology to identify these photos in emails and explore results.

What’s different with Apple, critics say, is that it’s scanning images on the blueprint, rather than after they’ve been uploaded to the internet.