Re:Apple’s Mistake
by zepto on Monday August 09, 2021 @08:10PM
(#28123862)
> The problem here is that this implementation really has nothing to do with cloud sync.
It is built into the photo uploading mechanism and only scans photos in a very narrow way that can’t be twisted into generic scanning.
> they could make it scan any media that was sent across the network.
Definitely false. It cannot match anything except photos in this very narrow way.
> There is nothing beyond promises to keep it that way,
Not true. The mechanism cannot be used as a general purpose media scanner.
What is true is that Apple could add a general purpose scanner in future, but it wouldn’t leverage this mechanism, and their potential to add arbitrary spyware has always been there and is not changed by this.
It is built into the photo uploading mechanism and only scans photos in a very narrow way that can’t be twisted into generic scanning.
> they could make it scan any media that was sent across the network.
Definitely false. It cannot match anything except photos in this very narrow way.
> There is nothing beyond promises to keep it that way,
Not true. The mechanism cannot be used as a general purpose media scanner.
What is true is that Apple could add a general purpose scanner in future, but it wouldn’t leverage this mechanism, and their potential to add arbitrary spyware has always been there and is not changed by this.