WhatsApp and Epic Games CEOs have made their concerns known about Apple’s newly announced tool meant to scan user iPhones, in a bid to avoid child sexual abuse.

Called 'neuralMatch', Apple's scanning tool may have the right intensions in mind, but has received mixed reactions from privacy advocates as it aims to not only scan photos on an iPhone but also users’ encrypted messages for sexually explicit content as a child safety measure.

In a series of tweets, WhatsApp head at Facebook, Will Cathcart goes on to voice is displease over Apple’s tool and even goes on to term it as "government spyware". “Instead of focusing on making it easy for people to report content that’s shared with them, Apple has built software that can scan all the private photos on your phone - even photos you haven’t shared with anyone. That’s not privacy," he said.

In the tweets, Cathcart further indicates that never before personal computers have been scanned for sexually explicit content in the name of privacy. Calling 'neuralMatch' a “surveillance system," the WhatsApp senior executive cautions that the tool could be misused in different countries by the governments.

“Will this system be used in China? What content will they consider illegal there, and how will we ever know? How will they manage requests from governments all around the world to add other types of content to the list for scanning," he notes. Cathcart says that WhatsApp will not adopt such a system to scan users’ private data.

Epic Games chief executive and founder, Tim Sweeney wasn't holding back either. He went on to criticise Apple, saying people must think of children but in the context of growing up in a dystopia with monopolies “with unlimited surveillance power increasingly taking on governing roles." He further notes that the existential threat here is an unholy alliance between government the monopolies who control online discourse and everyone’s devices, using the guise of private corporations to “circumvent constitutional protections."