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Apple Delays Rollout of Controversial Child Safety Features to Make Improvements
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At this point the only thing they could "improve" is removing the on-device scan part or at least provide a opt-out swich for people offended by it.
Looking forward to the future posts of outrage after they enable this feature following the massive sales of the 13.
They want us to upgrade to their new systems so bad. That's the only reason why they're "delaying" it.
They’re not. They will still release the god damn thing. They’re hoping the talk on this will die down.
The feedback on discovery would be broad based on what we have just seen.
Nope. Can you imagine the $h1tstorm that would ensue if they implemented this in a sneaky, secretive way???
Careful apple. The cancel culture you champion can backfire.
You are conflating issues.
What this would catch are the idiots that look at those photos. It wouldn’t catch the more intelligent viewers nor the creators Of this stuff.
Sounds like you're the one wetting him/herself.
"No idea what they are yelling about" - Are you referring to "security researchers, the privacy whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Facebook's former security chief, politicians, policy groups, university researchers, and even some Apple employees?"
You must know more than them, right?
People really don't understand this system...
Putting the automated scans of images being sent to children via iMessage to one side:
The on-device scanning for CSAM in iCloud Photo Library was a safer alternative to what every other image host does: Directly scanning uploaded photos on their service to detect known child pornography.
The difference with Apple's system is that instead of directly accessing users' unencrypted data on their servers, scanning was being done privately on-device.
I understand the slippery slope argument of Apple being forced to add other image hashes by oppressive regimes like China and Russia, but the relatively open manner in which they designed this system would have helped prevent that, or at least made it obvious.
Apple isn't wrong to want to keep CSAM off of their servers and services—they have a clear moral obligation to do this. In response, they developed a system that protected user privacy while ensuring that users hosting child pornography on iCloud could be rooted out and reported to the authorities. They even set a high threshold on the number of red flags that would have to arise before an investigation could be opened.
Their main mistake was forgetting that people don't read past the alarmist headlines.
Putting the automated scans of images being sent to children via iMessage to one side:
The on-device scanning for CSAM in iCloud Photo Library was a safer alternative to what every other image host does: Directly scanning uploaded photos on their service to detect known child pornography.
The difference with Apple's system is that instead of directly accessing users' unencrypted data on their servers, scanning was being done privately on-device.
I understand the slippery slope argument of Apple being forced to add other image hashes by oppressive regimes like China and Russia, but the relatively open manner in which they designed this system would have helped prevent that, or at least made it obvious.
Apple isn't wrong to want to keep CSAM off of their servers and services—they have a clear moral obligation to do this. In response, they developed a system that protected user privacy while ensuring that users hosting child pornography on iCloud could be rooted out and reported to the authorities. They even set a high threshold on the number of red flags that would have to arise before an investigation could be opened.
Their main mistake was forgetting that people don't read past the alarmist headlines.
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Because they weren’t victimized before Apple, get real 🙄🙄🙄🙄
You'd probably be surprised how careless these scumbags are when it comes to the collections of CSAM they hoard. Most of them don't really believe they're doing anything morally wrong, especially the ones who are "just collecting pictures off the internet."
Years ago, I had the misfortune of having an employee in a youth organization I was in charge of that was charged and convicted with both the possession and "making available" of CSAM. His laptop was full of the stuff, and while cloud services weren't a big thing back then (it was 2004), I fully believe he wouldn't have cared about using them to store his stuff. Had he owned an iPhone, I'm almost sure everything would have been in his Photos app, and therefore in iCloud Photo Library by extension.
In fact, he was caught because he was showing off his new PDA (a Palm device) to a co-worker at his day job, which was an oncology nurse at a large and well-known children's hospital. The other nurse happened to accidentally stumble across a CSAM photo after only a few seconds with the device, and subsequently reported it to their superiors, who of course involved law enforcement.
While he was only a "consumer" of CSAM (the "making available" charge had to do with sharing them on a peer-to-peer file sharing service — Kazaa I think it was), but in the process of the whole case I had to deal with the detectives as well, since I was his direct supervisor in this particular youth organization. They were initially pretty convinced that they were going to find that he had done more than just "look at" photos, but nothing else ever came of it. However, they did tell me that the forensic details they gleaned from his collection helped lead to the arrest of at least one guy who was creating this crap in his basement. As far as the cops are concerned, they want to nail everybody, since the little fish often lead to the bigger ones.
From the beginning, I've believed that this is the first step toward Apple improving end-to-end encryption in the cloud, and if the entire iCloud Photo Library were to be end-to-end encrypted, then it would be impossible for Apple to scan for CSAM anywhere else but on your device. That's a trade-off I'd be more than happy to make.
IMHO, Apple is morally and ethically obligated to keep this crap off its servers, but it also goes far beyond that. I have no doubt that U.S. lawmakers would go for the nuclear option and legislate end-to-end encryption out of existence if Apple ever tried to implement this without making allowances for dealing with CSAM. It's already the standard bogeyman being pulled out by U.S. Senators and district attorneys to attempt to pass laws against secure on-device encryption, but the fact that data in iCloud is generally accessible by warrant has made them unwilling to expend too much political capital on this. Close that door and it's all but guarantee that we'd see new laws requiring the FBI to have a back door into everyone's iPhones — both on-device and in the cloud.
Apple is walking a fine line and choosing its battles very carefully here. It's entire set of privacy initiatives could fall like a house of cards if it pushes too far.
THen again I wonder how much Legal hamstrung PR.
I'm with you on this, but it should be opt-in. I've gotten pictures of a random dude's genitalia before (via text) because someone transposed some numbers. I think this feature should be offered to everyone, kind of like Twitter's adult content filter that forces you to click if you want to see an image.
Good to hear. I hope this means they come to their senses and abandon the plans for on-device checking alltogether (I'm perfectly fine if they don't want to admit that this was a bad idea in the first place as long as they abandon the actual plan and/or resort to scanning in the cloud like everybody else).
The only downside I see is that now the new iPad Mini looks a lot more tempting again
The only downside I see is that now the new iPad Mini looks a lot more tempting again
Here we go again….apple delaying features 😳😜
This insane. Do they really expect people who are against this to buy new devices without knowing what they're getting into?
Cancel on-device scanning or just go through with it.
Cancel on-device scanning or just go through with it.
The cynic in me thinks the delay is so they don't have to talk about it during the iPhone 13 reveal. Then after, all bets are off!
The same thing they were planning on doing (matching hashes with known databases of CSAM), but on icloud servers only. It’s the “on-device” part that’s concerning most people from what I’ve seen, including myself.
Exactly this, and as I mentioned in a previous post, catching these morons often helps law enforcement actually nail the scumbags who are creating this stuff.
The bottom line is that the vast majority of the disturbed people who collect CSAM honestly don't think they're doing anything wrong. After all, "they're just pictures," so they don't make much of an effort to hide them.
The mother of all Trojans is still part of the new SpyOS!
It will be already implemented and there is no way back once you installed it.
They just want to prevent a huge drop in Sales over the holidays. In February they will press the button and start the global mass surveillance of their customers. First step is pictures, then comes voice, text, video and gps (if a crime happened close to you and you are not the victim, you are a suspect).
It will be already implemented and there is no way back once you installed it.
They just want to prevent a huge drop in Sales over the holidays. In February they will press the button and start the global mass surveillance of their customers. First step is pictures, then comes voice, text, video and gps (if a crime happened close to you and you are not the victim, you are a suspect).
True, except that it won't be available for adults, at least not in its current form. It can only be applied to users who are under 18 years of age and part of a Family Sharing group where the parents have opted into the feature.