- You are running a closed source proprietary OS that you cannot verify is not already doing anything.
- This could theoretically already be weaponized (with the existing server-side implementation) by getting someone to download a file to a folder that iCloud automatically syncs from.
>iCloud is opt-out.
Yes, and that's how you opt out of this scanning. It's the same opt-out as before.
>Under the guise of something no-one can genuinely be against (think of the children!) they have now included a pretty generic snitch into your phone and made everyone accept it.
I dunno what to tell you. I think the system as designed is actually pretty smart[1] and more transparent than before.
If you used iCloud before, and you're putting photos up that'd be caught in a hash comparison, you've already got a snitch. Same with any other cloud storage, short of hosting your own.
[1] I reserve the right for actual bona-fide cryptographers to dissect it and set the record straight, mind you.
We actually had the anti terror department arrest a popular, left-leaning YouTube influencer for harassment while physically assaulting his mum (all on video).
That's something that is literally unprecedented in Hong Kong just 3 years ago.
There are without doubt enough privacy bogeymen to go around, trying to derail a valid argument over its use of the Chinese as the placeholder bogeyman detracts from the discussion pointlessly.
We're talking about China taking advantage of this integrated technology to increase control over its population through backdoors like these.
China already imposes that all data from Chinese users be located in China and readily accessible and mined by the authorities[1].
Apple is willing to bow to these regimes because it has substantial supply-chain interests there and it sells hundred of millions of devices. A boon to both Apple and the local government.
[1]:https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-ce...
But still: Secondary. The main effect of even mentioning it is to deflect attention away from Apple.
And is it really unfathomable that the US government could use this sort of thing for evil? I mean, wind back the clock to something like the Red Scare. If they had iPhones back then, they totally would have pressured Apple to add hashes for communist imagery, and use that to persecute people (or worse).
(Before anyone brings this up: I do categorically reject the notion of "that was in the past; that couldn't happen today". If you truly believe that, I have a bridge you might be interested in purchasing...)
Today it's only geared toward iCloud and CSAM. How many lines of codes do you think it will take before it scans all your local pictures?
How hard do you think it will be for an authoritarian regime like China, that Apple bends over backwards to please, to start including other hashes that are not CSAM?
iCloud is opt-out. They can scan server-side like everyone does. Your device is your device, and it now contains, deeply embedded into it, the ability to perform actions that are not under your control and can silently report you directly to the authorities.
If you don't see a deep change there, I don't know what to say.
I live in a country that is getting more authoritarian by the day, where people are sent to prison (some for life) for criticizing the government, sometime just for chanting or printing a slogan.
This is the kind of crap that makes me extremely angry at Apple. Under the guise of something no-one can genuinely be against (think of the children!), they have now included a pretty generic snitch into your phone and made everyone accept it.