However there is a very long list of companies not just doing things for good, but also for profit.
And when profit enters the equation, then the original mission statement tends to get distorted into something bad/worse.
Of course Apple is free to decide, but the consumer has the option to either loudly disagree or exit the Apple ecosystem altogether.
I see the same pattern with pro-vaccine and "anti-vax", either you support vaccines or you are labeled "anti-vax", all is black-and-white without any nuances.
That sort of discussion rarely leads to any productive outcome.
However... yeah. This is a massive breach of trust. Having any spyware agent on my device is disgusting. I can't imagine the abuse cases this sort of thing can be used for.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/01/09/apples-scanning-...
Apple can decrypt data on iCloud, so why not just do this offline? Doesn't make much sense.
It makes me think that the technology will be expanded to encompass all offline images at some point.