Apple Remains Committed to Launching New Child Safety Features Later This Year

[chips99]

I think everyone could agree we want to keep people safe online. The problem is the slippery slope that this starts. First it lets people including bad actors and governments focused on oppression know that this is possible.

Second Apple must comply with the laws of the places where it does business. So in a country where homosexuality is illegal what happens when a government goes to Apple and says we have hashes of pictures of same sex couples displaying affection in public and those need to be found and reported to us as we want to arrest these individuals for illegal activities and possibly do much worse to them.

Then Apple either have to comply or they are forced to leave the market.

Once the genie is out of the bottle though, it hard to put it back...

 

[sunapple]

By the time you are worried about it, it will be way way too late and impossible to change.

You don't put the toothpaste back in the tube on this stuff.
It has to be kept "in the tube" or it's game over.

I’m curious what your solution is, if now is the only time to take action you’ll surely ditch technology altogether. If you stretch this thing as far as you have, just keeping iOS 14 and disabling iCloud Photos won’t be enough will it?

My point is, I’m worrying only about what I know now for sure and what I can control now. Not about what might be.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

This is just utterly sad. It will backfire, watch.

 

[SidricTheViking]

It only applies to iCloud photos? I thought the phone scans your device photos too?

Have a look at Rene Ritchie’s lengthy explanation of the whole thing. There are two different features. One applies to any image sent using the Messages app (not just using iMessage) and happens on device. The others applies to images stored in iCloud Photos and happens in Apple’s servers. They serve slightly different but related purposes, it seems.

 

[iOS Geek]

Here's the thing...Given the subject matter, there really is no way for Apple to come out of this undamaged. Keep the features...the users are angry about the scanning. Get rid of the features...the media and the government paint Apple as the "perv protectors".

Society today is all about saying that if you aren't absolutely 100% on this side, it means you're on the other.

 

[robertjamesm]

Why don’t they start by scanning the elites phones and laptops they are the pedophiles? How about Hunter Biden laptop? Seem like a rule thee and not for me!

 

[turbineseaplane]

I’m curious what your solution is...

I said it earlier in this thread.

I want Apple to go full E2E and force this to a public policy debate.

These are paradigm shifts in civil liberties that should be debated in the open at the political level.

This is opening the door to creating a surveillance state that fundamentally changes key things this country was founded upon. That should be discussed and decided legislatively, over a long period of time, in the open.

Corporations - at the behest of intelligence and law enforcement agencies - should not be rolling this out and making it a norm.

 

[Westside guy]

The big issue is creating a method that allows Apple to review content that's supposed to be private. It opens the possibility for someone to add 'reasons' to review any content they want to accuse a user of creating, saving, or sharing.

I'd argue the bigger issue is that Apple's basic argument is "it's impossible to add anything other than CSAM image hashes to our matching database because we'll refuse to do it". If a FISA court orders them to add something, or if the law changes to require them to add something, Apple will comply - we already know that. This basically hands all those entities a ready-made backdoor onto all our devices, which is something Apple previously said they'd never do.

And I honestly doubt Apple doesn't realize this already - they're smart people. I'm wondering if this is the result of some quiet private negotiations that have been happening between Apple and various government entities.

 

[TVOR]

My point is, I’m worrying only about what I know now for sure and what I can control now. Not about what might be.

With the greatest respect, having this attitude of only worrying about what is clear and present now and not considering what the currently active path may lead to in the future will almost certainly mean that, by the time you arrive at a new point on the path, there will be little or nothing you can control as you are always behind the curve.

With that said, I do understand your point about not wanting to tie your thoughts up with uncertain things, but if there is not some forethought then you may as well resign yourself to not having control over anything because - almost inevitably - by the time you become aware of a change in policy or direction it will be ingrained in and there will be little to nothing you can do. By being aware of what is coming down the pipe you MAY at least - along with enough others - have a chance of changing the direction of either yourself or the incoming "thing"...just a thought...

 

[turbineseaplane]

Have a look at Rene Ritchie’s lengthy explanation

Rene is a homer and about as unbiased as it gets.
His entire livelihood depends upon supporting Apple and their narratives.

 

[jonnyb098]

Great points..
Also - why the hyper narrow focus on this one type of crime?

Why not scan for domestic abuse?
or people taking pics of drinking and driving?

The list could go on for days...

Not acceptable Apple.
Get out of this business before you even start.

This is turning you into an arm of law enforcement.

Clearly Apple has data that this is a major problem. Also it seems the average person seems aloof to what a problem this is especially in other parts of the world as well.

 

[rafark]

Either apple is evil or someone is forcing apple.

 

[turbineseaplane]

This basically hands all those entities a ready-made backdoor onto all our devices, which is something Apple previously said they'd never do.

And I honestly doubt Apple doesn't realize this already - they're smart people. I'm wondering if this is the result of some quiet private negotiations that have been happening between Apple and various government entities.

I wonder this EXACT thing also.

It feels to me like they are doing deals with the devil to not get pushed into anti-trust enforcement paths, etc

 

[turbineseaplane]

Clearly Apple has data that this is a major problem. Also it seems the average person seems aloof to what a problem this is especially in other parts of the world as well.

Have you seen the stats on them versus Facebook on scanning and reporting on this?

They've been largely ignoring it.

This feels about "something else" to me

 

[dialogos]

To those who say I have nothing to hide, let's say I could be having affairs in my personal life. That means I would have many things to hide, nothing illegal and it would be my business!!!

Those who say just go to Android. I spent only this year a lot of money on apple devices because I chose privacy as they advertised it and because they will be supported for years - so I do want to upgrade my devices with future OS. I am not going to burn my money just because Apple decides to kill privacy as it was initially advertised (non stop for years) and affected my choice of purchase.

If Apple is about to do what Google does, why not go with Google services which are much better anyway? Some of us, chose Apple's inferior services for privacy.

I keep tons of medical records and photos stored in my phone - icloud photos is off - I have no idea if it's legal to have my files/photos scanned in my device.

Some recommend to deactivate icloud photos - I don't use it anyway but the majority of users do - Isn't it Apple ecosystem a big selling point so far?

Finally some personal thoughts

To those who use terms like good and bad guys, I have to say life is way more complex than that.

It's obvious to assume there are people here in the forum who work for apple. And I would rather assume that than think that there are people so dogmatic and fanatic that they will spend so much of their time to defend a company.

We reached the point of paranoia where someone in order to express his/her opinion against apple has to begin by saying: Don't get me wrong but I love Apple.... How many times haven't we read this phrase here?? We almost reach the point that we need to apologize if we have a complain from a Apple.

Thanks for reading my long post. I have posted it in two threads because there are so many opened for the same subject

 

[Ursadorable]

Apple Remains Committed to Launching New Child Safety Features Later This Year

What a coincidence, I'm committed to purging Apple products from my life later this year as well.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Clearly Apple has data that this is a major problem. Also it seems the average person seems aloof to what a problem this is especially in other parts of the world as well.

You think CSAM is more prevalent than domestic abuse or drunk driving?
(or pick any of a zillion other issues and crimes out there)

 

[Seend1983]

Last time I checked fighting and preventing crimes was the job of the FBI and law enforcement! Are they going out of business now that Apple is taking over? It's not really a big deal, since the 1st feature must be explicitly enabled and the 2nd doesn't apply to me since I already have iCloud Photos off, but still irksome to see Apple fancying itself as Junior Law Enforcement.

 

[scurt1s]

I don’t know about that. At the risk of shutting down this thread (sorry in advance), how are they going to resist the pressure to give this tech to China? All the CCP has to do is say we want this software engineering or you no longer have access to our market.

This will be reverse engineered by somebody for nefarious purposes.

They already give into china considering all the Chinese users have their servers stored there. If you think they dont bend over backwards for the CCP already you're mistaken.

 

[H. Flower]

I never want to hear Tim Cook crow about privacy ever again.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If Apple is about to do what Google does, why not go with Google services which are much better anyway? Some of us, chose Apple's inferior services for privacy.

This is a really great point!!

Very few people, if being honest, would say Apple services are "better" than the ones they compete with in various spaces. We've been using them in spite of all that - for the "privacy"

Siri is the dumbest and least useful "assistant" out there (as just one example).

I mean if we are going to scan the hell out of our photos - might as well use Google.
It's night and day better - not even close ..

 

[FindingAvalon]

Those who are complaining obviously did not read how the technology works.

You have a higher chance of winning the lottery than Apple erroneously looking through your photos.

Way to miss the point.

 

[farewelwilliams]

You are not going to convince those who won the lottery.

nonsensical.

 

[MilaM]

If you don't like this change, just sign-out out of iCloud completely. It's not that inconvenient. There are other methods for syncing contacts, calendars and notes. iMessage and Facetime have seperate logins. App Store as well.

The only inconvenience for me is that I can't use Apple Pay and Find My anymore. Would be nice if you could use those without being signed into the syncing aspect of iCloud.

I was never comfortable syncing everything with iCloud. It's so opaque and there is no way seeing what is really stored by the different apps.

 

[scurt1s]

With the image text searching that's coming out in ios 15. Next logical step could be scanning pictures for stuff such as jihadist text or imagery.