> Moving it on device will show 0 improvement to the original goal, while opening a door that quite frankly I never expected Apple to be the one to open (I would have bet on Microsoft).
The CSAM scan is only for photos that are to be uploaded to iCloud Photos. Turning off iCloud Photos will disable this.
Sorry if my point wasn't clear, I do understand this yes.
My point is that to my knowledge, this is the first time that an on device "content check" is being done (even if it's just for photos that will end up in iCloud). This is the precedent (the on device check) that makes me and some others uneasy, as pointed out in the linked letter. The fact that it applies only to photos going to the cloud is an implementation detail of the demonstrated technology.
Legislators around the world now have a precedent and may (legitimately) want it extended to comply with their existing or upcoming laws. This is not a particularly far fetched scenario if you consider that Apple has already accommodated how they run their services locally (as they should, they have to comply with local laws around the world in order to be able to operate).
That's the crux of the issue most of the people quoted in the letter have, one can argue it's just a slippery slope argument, I personally think that one can be legitimately concerned of the precedent being set.
Keeping doing it on server, in my opinion, was a much better option for users (with the same compliance to local laws and effectiveness to the stated goal as far as we know, there's no improvement on that front, or none that couldn't have been brought to the existing server check), and ultimately also a safer option in the long run for Apple.
They've opened themselves, for little reason, to a large amount of trouble on an international scale and at this point rolling it back (to server checks) might not make a difference anyway.
Simply turning off iCloud Photos will ensure that photos on your iPhone are never scanned. Why are you trying to make this thing about photos stored on-device? Photos in iCloud have always been available to Apple through iCloud backups. If you are concerned about privacy, turn it off.
"And it does so while providing significant privacy benefits over existing techniques since Apple only learns about users’ photos if they have a collection of known CSAM in their iCloud Photos account."
Not as ridiculous as being well aware of the limitations of iPhones wrt to installing applications outside of App Store and still buying one. People should vote with their wallets. Me personally I do not mind the limitations, but if you do - don't buy it.
That only works in efficient markets, which, obviously phones are not. An oligopoly where the barrier of entry requires like a billion dollars to spin up new phone hardware, a new OS, and an app ecosystem is not a place where effective competition is going to occur.
If we require sideloading via untrusted sources, then that's just flipping the situation on its head to where, now, people who do want a phone with a single authority screening the entire software stack (from the bootrom to third party app code) don't have a phone to pick from that will suit their needs. With such a law, it becomes impossible to enter into the market at all with a product for these customers.
The phrase "vote with your wallets" should just be eliminated because it's completely meaningless. You're asking to "just" coordinate millions of people to do some collective action or to change their behavior.
Do you know what the tool for doing that is called? Government. Vote with your actual votes.
Vote with your wallet works in that, if someone made an undesirable product when right next to it at the Best Buy is a superior product, the inferior product sells zero units and thus the company loses millions or billions of dollars in sales. If both of those products suck, then why would consumers buy them and Best Buy stock them? Or is it that both of those products are invaluable and some people are just mad that the products have certain features (security restrictions) which they don't want.
Their designs are protected at the point of a gun through patents and copyrights. Breaking those literally means the police will use force to stop you and to ruin and imprison you.
Take away these restrictions and you’d see an identical iPhone, but without Apple’s restrictions. I bet that phone would sell millions. That would actually allow voting with your wallet to be real.
Since the government enables these behaviors, it is also the only one who can actually reign them in. Unless these nearly perpetual lock-ins stop, voting with your wallet is impossible.
> Especially since the feature to alert users of the possible privacy invasion outlined here, seems to not yet be working as advertised.
The AirTag was not moving, hence the lack of notifications. Otherwise you'd get a ton of notification practically anywhere you approach an AirTag. It is working as intended.
A lot of people have porn on their phone, and none would be able to prove its provenance. I wonder if one day Apple will be required to detect all underage model photos and delete the person’s entire Apple account.
I said, "Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Hey, you, get off of my cloud
Don't hang around 'cause two's a crowd
On my cloud, baby"
