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EFF Flew a Banner Over Apple Park During Last Apple Event to Protest CSAM Plans
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Not entirely correct.
Apple: Scanning while you are uploading. Its not scanning items from my Outlook, or Files. It is baked in the iCloud Pipeline. Items that would be on their servers anyway are being scanned. Its not like its going through the SSD and scanning like an anti-virus software would.
We are so glad YOU consider it a non-issue 🙄🙄🙄
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No, if the scanner isn't there, it can't scan anything -- all it can do is upload.
They aren't scanning on my phone or other devices. They're scanning theirs.
Ahh, yes, kind of a double opt, so yes, you're right, but do you really want to do without other iCloud features? Well, I want to use them, but I don't want them scanning my phone.
And I clearly explained why. So far the only disagreeing responses have been appeal to authority and sarcasm/eye-rolling. Not exactly what I'd call rational responses.
I wonder why MacRumors only published this story at 2:06 am on a Friday, September 24, 2021, while Jason Kelley published his EFF story on Tuesday, September 21, 2021?
The EFF flew two planes over Apple Park and Apple's One Infinite Loop Headquarters on September 14, 2021 at 10:00 am for at least an hour during Apple's "California Streaming" Event. Why did MacRumors wait 10 days to report this, instead of reporting the flyovers when they happened? The EFF announced that these flyovers would happen well in advance of September 14, 2021.
The EFF flew two planes over Apple Park and Apple's One Infinite Loop Headquarters on September 14, 2021 at 10:00 am for at least an hour during Apple's "California Streaming" Event. Why did MacRumors wait 10 days to report this, instead of reporting the flyovers when they happened? The EFF announced that these flyovers would happen well in advance of September 14, 2021.
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First, please come off your high horse.
Second, my remark is related to the number of cars parked @ One Infinite Loop. If you look at the second image in the article, only about 1 out of 15 spots have a vehicle on it indicating that most of Apple is still working remotely therefore this banner was seen by very few people that work at apple. I'm not talking about traffic. I'm saying if I'm going to fly a banner of an HQ, I wouldn't do it while 90% of them aren't even working at the office.
I didn't see this story anywhere else... and I read A LOT of Apple blogs.
But maybe I just missed it because there's a lot going on in the world these days.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I first became aware of EFF's flyover plans on September 9, 2021 in this article:
"Don't Stop Now: Join EFF, Fight for the Future at Apple Protests Nationwide"
Don’t Stop Now: Join EFF, Fight for the Future at Apple Protests Nationwide
We’re winning—but we can’t let up the pressure. Apple has delayed their plan to install dangerous mass surveillance software onto their devices, but we need them to cancel the program entirely. Next week, just before Apple’s big iPhone launch event, we need your help to make sure the company does...
The Twitter hashtag #NoSpyPhone also picked up this story around that time.
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In 2015 Eric Schmidt (Chair of Google) at the time was telling a group of us that Google wasn’t evil and such and I believed him after his speech. Afterwards I was just a few feet from him and could have just introduced myself and shook his hand, I chickened out at the time and always regretted it. He was worth over 10 billion back then and now over 20 billion today.
I did note he wore the same type of suit as me but whatever…hahahahaha…
The point is that over the years I’m glad I didn’t shake his hand. I have an issue with Apple that affects artists in the music industry and only heard crickets. Not even an acknowledgment they got the letter, but it was couriered and I have the information that they got it. Good luck with this stuff now.
Back in 2015 I didn’t use an Android phone or iPhone (in New York people would sneak a peak at my phone as you couldn’t get it there at that time which was cool). You had a choice back then and you sort of now but not like back then. Anyway, I think you are wasting your time petitioning them on a messenger board. Don’t up-grade the iOS even if you may already have it on iOS 14 and I would not buy a new iPhone unless I could downgrade to iOS 14 or a special version just for new phones - an opt-out downgrade.
People do care but there is little they can do. Maybe in two years this issue can be raised but that is about it. But with iPhone sales accounting for half of Apple’s revenue this is where you can get their attention. My guess is that people will be more interested in the new colours this year - pity. Go get a Linux phone and support that open source platform as that’s all you have now.
I did note he wore the same type of suit as me but whatever…hahahahaha…
The point is that over the years I’m glad I didn’t shake his hand. I have an issue with Apple that affects artists in the music industry and only heard crickets. Not even an acknowledgment they got the letter, but it was couriered and I have the information that they got it. Good luck with this stuff now.
Back in 2015 I didn’t use an Android phone or iPhone (in New York people would sneak a peak at my phone as you couldn’t get it there at that time which was cool). You had a choice back then and you sort of now but not like back then. Anyway, I think you are wasting your time petitioning them on a messenger board. Don’t up-grade the iOS even if you may already have it on iOS 14 and I would not buy a new iPhone unless I could downgrade to iOS 14 or a special version just for new phones - an opt-out downgrade.
People do care but there is little they can do. Maybe in two years this issue can be raised but that is about it. But with iPhone sales accounting for half of Apple’s revenue this is where you can get their attention. My guess is that people will be more interested in the new colours this year - pity. Go get a Linux phone and support that open source platform as that’s all you have now.
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Sorry but there has been plenty of rational responses, you just don’t care….
Its not scanning....scanning is going through every bit on your device, like an anti-virus scanning for malicious content. Its simply DURING THE UPLOAD PROCESS, getting the hash collision results of the image that is being uploaded. My outlook data is not scanned, email messages are not scanned, youtube downloads are not scanned. It is not scanning.
With or without CSAM, your phone is already "scanning" by getting the files that are to be uploaded to iCloud. This changes NOTHING. Once it picks images to upload, it already performed the "scan". Then, it simply loops through each image that is being uploaded and just calculates the resulting hash.
Again, there have been MANY rational responses, and some from people who work in this field, you just don’t care….
Thank you for your definition of scanning. I didn't know the definition changed. So in order for something to be called scanning, it has to scan every bit of your device. interesting. So what do you call the process of scanning just one thing (oops, I used the word incorrectly again)? Point being I don't care what you want to call it, I don't go out of my way to spend my hard earned money on things that police me, even if its for just one thing. Because one thing then becomes two things which then becomes everything. If the world you want to live in is a police state where every device you own is monitoring you for something, then go ahead and be okay with these types of things.
I buy a TV to watch TV. I don't buy a TV with cameras in it to scan my living room for drugs (because they promise that's all that they will be looking for). To you, its just the living room and not the whole house so its not really scanning anyway. I buy a car to get around. I don't buy a car that reports me to the police when I go over the speed limit. But because its not reporting me for going through stops signs, it's not really policing, right. I buy a phone to do phone things, not compare unknown hashes to even one of my photos. Its a free country. If a car company wants to make a car that polices its users, great go ahead. I won't buy it. If Apple wants to make devices that police its users, great go ahead. I won't buy it.
I'm not sure what alternate universe you're living in, but there have been exactly three replies to my original post - 1 positive and 2 negative. One of the negative ones was appeal to authority and the second was just a sarcastic quip and an eye-roll. I will not reply further to you, as I'm not in the mood for games. Good day.
Its not scanning because it already has the picture identified that is being uploaded. Therefore, it is not introducing a scanning functionality. In fact, it is not scanning AT ALL. iCloud already did the scan to identify which picture to upload, Apple is just including calculating a hash during this process.
There is essentially no scanning, no matter how you look at it. iCloud already "scanned" for the image to be uploaded. I guess you want Apple to completely drop iCloud then since it scans for things to upload.
You probably should read what this scanning, and yes, that's the proper word, does. There's a task on your device that makes a hash number from the picture prior to it being uploaded (hence the term scanning -- you can't make a hash value without scanning the picture), it uses a neural-hash algorithm to describe the picture, then compares it with an on device database, and if it finds a match, it flags it, then does the upload to iCloud, which does not do any scanning, then once you have 30 of these flagged images, it makes up a packet of low res copies of your images, and the hashes they matched and send them on for apple to check manually. If Apple agrees, then they send it to the CSAM people. And that's all according to Apple themselves!
That software that does the neural hash scanning and the database being on our devices is what most of us are objecting to vehemently. If the server was really doing the scanning and comparing as you suggest, I wouldn't have a problem with it.
For the server to do it, it would mean your photos would have to be unencrypted (with respect to apple) on the server. This is currently the case. The reason apple proposes this new technique is so they can encrypt your uploads and not have the key.
It’s far better for privacy if apple cannot
Look at the photos you upload.