Since 2019, Apple has joined Google and Meta in offering its own “Sign in with Apple” button, which allows you to log in to a website or service using your Apple ID. This method is great because it allows you to communicate a virtual email address to the site without having to disclose your personal email address, a good thing to avoid the resale of information to third-party companies. While the “Sign in with Apple” button works well overall, it is now at the heart of a scandal, Apple’s button was present on several adult sites specializing in deepfakes!
Apple quickly responded to the matter.
Deepfakes are often used for malicious purposes, to make personalities say compromising things in order to damage their image or to gain the trust of a large audience in order to scam them. For example, we can talk about a recent deepfake that occurred in France a few days ago and that caused a lot of noise in the media, it is that of a fake casino with a fake video of Alain Delon. If you are a regular Facebook user, you may have seen in your news feed, a video where Alain Delon (recently deceased) said in front of the camera that after his death, he would give all his money to the French, but that to take advantage of it, you had to register on a casino site. This video, which spread very quickly on the social network, reached hundreds of thousands of people before being removed by Meta.
Beyond scams, deepfakes are also used to create fake nude images in order to harm or intimidate people, whether they are close to them or even celebrities who have always been careful never to have nude photos and videos of themselves circulating on the internet. These practices pose serious risks to the privacy and security of victims, whose image is thus exploited for abusive purposes.
Logging in via Apple on questionable sites
Apple, which is known for its strict privacy policy, categorically refuses to allow its “Sign in with Apple” button to appear on illegal sites. However, a recent report reveals a worrying reality: six sites dedicated to the creation of sexual deepfakes offered the possibility of logging in via Apple, just a few days ago. However, these sites did not respect Apple’s general conditions of use, which should theoretically exclude them from using this service.
The problem is that the presence of this login option on these controversial sites makes it seem as if large companies, such as Apple, are endorsing these platforms. WIRED’s investigation highlighted the extent of the problem. On 16 of the largest sites dedicated to the creation of nude images, many login systems owned by tech giants are used. Google, for example, appears on all 16 sites, Discord on 13 of them, and Apple on six.
Following these revelations, Apple quickly terminated the affected developer accounts after being informed by WIRED. Discord has also removed developer accounts linked to these sites, as has Apple. Google has said it will take action against developers if they violate its rules, while Patreon has said it bans accounts involved in creating explicit images. Finally, X has not responded to requests for comment, and the button has yet to be disabled.
The positive is that Apple, Google, Discord, and Patreon have all responded when alerted, but the presence of their login systems on deepfake sites shows that there is likely some laxity when it comes to giving approval to use the “Log in with…” button.