Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Explains How the Photos People Recognition Feature Has Improved in iOS 15
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Apple has said, several times, that the analasys of photos is on-device and not shared into the web or with your other devices.
On one hand that seems an incredible waste of CPU, locating faces on each device individually, on the other hand it speaks to Apple's idea that there's no reason to send anything off device an risk privacy to do these things.
When Apple Maps alerts me of the Police while driving.......I'll start using it.....
Until then, sticking with the advertisement infested Waze.
Until then, sticking with the advertisement infested Waze.
So... now?
Apple Maps has the ability to provide hazard, police and collision
Maps
Maps is packed with smart features that make getting to and getting the most out of your destination fast and easy.
www.apple.com
You honestly think that China isn't monitoring the rest of the world... You think this post hasn't just sparked a flurry of red flags...
That doesn't seem to be totally the case. Let's say I've got 1000 photos in my Library and Photos identifies my daughter in 200 of them. I'd expect to see that on all of my devices as each device will use the same algorithms and therefore identify the same photos. However, on my MacBook I then use the "Confirm Additional Photos" feature. I confirm that 10 pictures that Photos wasn't sure about are my daughter, and from that Photos goes on the confirm another 40, so it now has 250 photos of my daughter - 200 originally identified by AI, 10 possible matches confirmed by me, 40 more by AI refined by those confirmations.
If I then check on Photos on any of my other devices, I'll see 250 photos identified as my daughter, so there's clearly some information being shared. It could just be that the metadata is being shared within the updated photos, or it could be that a 'description' of how to better recognise my daughter is being shared. Even if it is just the metadata, if that new metadata is then used to refine the AI's ability to recognise my daughter on those other devices, then effectively it's the same thing. So whilst the actual analysis happens on-device, the AI used for that analysis is shared (or derived) between all devices.
The bottom line is that even though the AI function is local to the device, the evolving ability of the AI appears to be shared between synced devices. Shared learning, if you like.
Yeah the device detects the faces and syncs with iCloud (if enabled) and then changes you make like confirming additional photos are also synced just like any other changes you make. 👍
As far as I know it writes it to the metadata _on your phone_ but not in the cloud.
Your iPad / Mac / future phone(s) run the same algorithms and write exactly the same metadata (or better as the algorithm improves). They don't share it with Apple's cloud service because that wouldn't benefit you in any way, and it could harm you (breach of privacy) and harm Apple (public outcry disaster if the data is compromised).
Not as locked down as heart / health data, but still very much locked down. Also consider it's not just your privacy it's also the privacy of every person you ever photograph.
So much better? Have you been conducting extensive research with both platforms? Can you report your results and testing methodology using both devices?
So why does Apple still not allow you to turn this nonsense *off*? The phone creates "Memories" that I have to delete, it creates "People" that I have to delete... why can't the user just turn this ML nonsense *off*?
I would *never* allow the phone to be authoritative, of course. But since the pictures are there, it does this useless analysis every time I put the phone on charge. I just looked, it's created another "People" entry with a bunch of *anime* snips from Tumblr. Again.
Delete.
I would *never* allow the phone to be authoritative, of course. But since the pictures are there, it does this useless analysis every time I put the phone on charge. I just looked, it's created another "People" entry with a bunch of *anime* snips from Tumblr. Again.
Delete.
This can’t be correct. As I mentioned above, if you improve the AI’s knowledge on one device by confirming a few photos, it will go on to detect even more of that person. If you then check a synced device, those extra photos will also be identified as the person. So, it’s either sharing metadata over iCloud or the AI is sharing its learning to other synced devices over iCloud to let those devices also identify the extra photos.
From what I just saw - family vacation in June - facial recognition has become AWFUL in Apple Photos.
I had to manually tag over 500 photos of family members.
It broke sometime in 2020 - we look the same, same glasses, etc. - and this doesn't include photos with masks.
It was so frustrating I hard powered my MacBook and slammed it shut.
I had to manually tag over 500 photos of family members.
It broke sometime in 2020 - we look the same, same glasses, etc. - and this doesn't include photos with masks.
It was so frustrating I hard powered my MacBook and slammed it shut.
The facial recognition might be better, but the process might not be. I would prefer my images stay on my phone. Also you don't get any facial recognition if your Android phone has no signal.
Maybe China is eager to do that, but it does not possess the capability to extend its surveillance beyond its occupied territory.
What do you call surveillance? Just the other day news streams reported that China was increasing its number of missile silos, based on satelite footage. Are China incapable of doing this to the USA / other countries?
TikTok is China-owned. Do you think they are not spying on users?
Organised cyber attacks are regularly being blamed on China over the past few years in particular. Do you think they are just having an innocent poke around?
