> This is a new mechanism for scanning private pictures on the device.

No it isn’t. It’s a mechanism for scanning pictures as they are uploaded to iCloud Photo Library.

Private pictures on the device are not scanned.

Pictures not uploaded yet are private.

Not if you have opted to have them uploaded.

Cloud backups are the default on iOS, so you rather have to opt out. And that doesn't even account for apps that can do the same.

iCloud backups are not scanned.

Also, what apps are you talking about?

Photos that are automatically uploaded to iCloud are not scanned?

As for apps - WhatsApp, for example, saves everything to Camera Roll by default. Which then gets auto-uploaded to iCloud.

> Photos that are automatically uploaded to iCloud are not scanned?

iCloud backups are not scanned. Only photos uploaded to iCloud Photo Library.

> As for apps - WhatsApp, for example, saves everything to Camera Roll by default. Which then gets auto-uploaded to iCloud.

This is not true at all. The user is asked for explicit permission before apps can save photos to the camera roll, and the user must choose to use iCloud Photo Library.

If your device generates a safety token and it's never uploaded anywhere, that's a no-op.

How are those two examples different than before? You can't unupload a photo under either the old or new system. I don't know why we would expect that the scanning feature will be more prone to accidentally scan too many photos compared to the uploading feature accidentally uploading too many photos.

>Many people did trust Apple to keep their files private until now.

And that was my original point. If a pinky promise from Apple is not enough to trust them, then Apple should have never been trusted.

> You can't unupload a photo under either the old or new system.

You can choose to upload many pictures. They will start uploading. Then, you change your mind. Some pictures were not uploaded yet. But they were scanned by the new algorithm.

I do wonder what happens in that case to the scan results for the photos that weren't yet uploaded. From earlier articles it sounded like the "voucher" is attached to the image upon upload, so it stands to reason that if you cancel an upload, results don't get uploaded for photos that didn't get uploaded. Who knows, though...