This is the EXACT SAME database EVERY cloud provider has been using for about a decade. Look up Microsoft PhotoDNA.
The only difference is that the company doing it was Apple, who wanted to do the checks on-device BEFORE upload. And with multiple redundancies and human review.
Not like Microsoft, who have - for example - shut down the MS account of a German man for having photos of his own children on a beach. No human review, no way to complain. Everything gone from Outlook mail to Xbox account.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Center_for_Missing_%2...
I'll eat my hat if this system doesn't hurt someone innocent.
Because if a government agency is involved they will be doing so server-side instead of client-side.
I hope you're right, but I don't think you will be.
One of these yummy nacho hats? https://www.google.com/search?q=nacho+hats&tbm=isch
Our defense of privacy should be paramount, and we shouldn't defend the fruit company for assailing it just because we like the pretty things they make.
Every word of Stallman's warnings about computing freedom was right. He was prescient. And just like his arguments, there are many people that view this move by Apple as a huge erosion of privacy. We all have a very legitimate fear that shouldn't be dismissed.
You can attack and trivialize my arguments, but mark my words, history will show we're making a huge mistake here.
For some definition. Russia's FSB might have a very different idea of what this is. Anti-Putin memes, for instance. Navalny support materials or brochures. You'll have to watch what you download, because your phone might upload it and incriminate you.
Or China's MSS. Winnie the Pooh, Tiananmen Square, Free HK, etc.
Or even the FBI. Financial or political leaks, Wikileaks, etc.
Once they know who you are and why they don't like you, they can incriminate you in other ways. This helps them find and flag you. They don't even need to monitor and decrypt traffic - they can just upload hashes of things they don't like and let Apple's dragnet do all the work.
Don't buy into "CSAM" scare. It's never the intent. The powers that be don't give a damn about children. It's about power.