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An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

appleprivacyletter.com

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Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#301
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand, you can use Linux on the M1 now, so at least as a stopgap. For nas, synology is always a good brand.

Linux on M1 isn't ready yet for daily use, but we're working on it. Expect things to move pretty quickly in the next few months.

What is the plan for integrating with custom aspects of Mac machines like the t2 chip?

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#302
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is a very deep and troublesome philosophical issue here. Ceci n'est pas une pipe. A picture of child abuse /is not/ child abuse. Let me ask you a counter-question. If I am able to draw child pornography so realistically that you couldn't easily tell, am I committing a crime by drawing?

Yes. People have been convicted for possession of hand-drawn and computer-generated images. Editing a child's image to make it pornographic is also illegal. So some "deepfake" videos using faces from young celebs are in all likelihood very illegal in many jurisdictions. Images can be illegal if all people are of age, but are portrayed as underage. Many historical dramas take legal advice about this when they have adu…

And companies are terrified of any sort of liability here, which can lead to over-broad policies.

On reddit, you can't link to written content like stories or fanfiction (words only, without any image files) if any character in your fictional story is under 18 and does anything sexual in the story.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#303
post #3

Please talk to non-tech people around you about this. This overreach simply cannot stand, and from a company that sees success from touting itself as a privacy-centric alternative? These really are some dark times. I imagine that if the world had Stasi fresher in its mind, this would never have happened.

it still boggles my mind how naive people in the tech industry are, they fall for the same trick again and again over the course of decades. Same people who fell for Google's "don't be evil" and Google pretending to be better than the Evil Empire Microsoft are now shocked that Apple was really only in business for money from the start and the privacy stuff was just a marketing gimmick

That's a little cynical though don't you think? Couldn't it be that they were sincere in the beginning but over time, company culture changes, the original founders move on/retire/die/etc and pressure from government, lobbyists, etc add up. I guess its the same result in the end.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#304
post #4

I recently listened to a Darknet Diaries episode on messaging app Kik. This app is apparently being used by many people to trade child pornography. In this episode, there was some criticism expressed on how Kik doesn't scan all the images on their platform for child pornography. I would really like to hear from people who sign this open letter, how they think about this. Should the internet be a free for all place wi…

If a company explicitly states in a service's terms and conditions that content stored or shared through that service will be scanned, I think that's acceptable because the user then can decide to use such a service on a case-by-case basis.

However, making this a legal requirement or deliberately manipulating a device to scan the entire content stored on that device without the user's consent or knowledge even, is extremely problematic, not just from a privacy point of view.

Such power can and will be abused and misused, sometimes purposefully, sometimes accidentally or erroneously. The devastating outcome to innocent people who have been wrongfully accused remains the same in either case (see https://areoform.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/on-apples-expanded... for a realistic scenario, for example).

The very least I'd expect if such a blanket surveillance system were implemented is that there were hefty, potentially crippling fines and penalties attached to abusing that system in order to avoid frivolous prosecution.

Otherwise, innocent people's lives could be ruined with little to no repercussions for those responsible.

Do strict privacy requirements allow crimes to be committed? Yes, they do. So do other civil liberties. However, we don't just casually do away with those.

If the police suspect a crime to have been committed they have to procure a warrant. That's the way it should work in these cases, too.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#306
Maybe I'm an overly-sensitive person but I really can't get comfortable with a neural network looking over my shoulder, spying on me 24/7.

My parents gave me privacy and treated me with respect when I was a child. Now I'm an adult, and in a way it's like I have less privacy than when I was a kid. And the entities violating my privacy have way more power than my parents.

I want to continue working with technology, but how can I make mass consumer goods (i.e. apps) without being a user myself? These moves are going to slowly force me out of technology, which is sad, because creating with programming is my favorite activity. But life without some semblance privacy is hardly life.

Here's to a slow farewell, Apple! It was a good run.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#307
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or manipulating photos a little so the classifier deems them dangerous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXy6oX1iNoA

This isn’t a neutral network classifier, it’s an algorithm that searches against existing CSAM photos. https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/CSAM_Detection_Techni...

“ Messages uses on-device machine learning to analyze image attachments and determine if a photo is sexually explicit.”

https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#308
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a) They scan photos for nudity using a NN if the participants are children and in a family (the account grouping), giving children warnings and information if they send or receive such material. A+++ thumbs up. Leave my kids alone. If they want to share photos of themselves naked, it's none of anyone's business except them and maybe me (maybe), certainly not a huge American corporation. Neither me or my kids have i…

Hopefully this is another configurable option that falls under the already very extensive family screen time feature. I understand where you're coming from and respect your position, but I fall on the opposite side. This is something I do want for my kid.

On the Child Safety page one of the dialogs is the opt in (or out) configuration, so it seems, as one would expect, that the adult(s) in the family sharing group get to configure this.

And it's a useful, valuable option that many (I would wager the overwhelming majority) parents will enable.

Apple made a huge PR mistake announcing both of these systems together (the CP hashing system and the NN message warning system), because as seen throughout the comments it has led to lots of people conflating and mixing and matching elements of both into a fearsome frankensystems.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#309
post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptop | Desktop: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/overview/cp/linuxsystem... Router: https://www.turris.com/en/omnia/overview/ Media Center: https://osmc.tv/vero/ Cloud (Use TrueNAS Scale): https://www.truenas.com/systems-overview/ Phone: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ Watch: https://pine64.com/product/pinetime-smartwatch-sealed/ Smart Thermostat: https://hestiapi.com/product/hestiapi-touch-one-free-shippin..…

The dell and lenovo laptops are nowhere the quality of the apple machines, sadly. I have a maxed out xps and it is a downgrade in all respects but privacy. :/

Not true at all. My Lenovo T440s from 7 years ago is still running strong and handling everything I throw at it. It doesn't do graphics well, but you don't own a Mac if you're into gaming and things like that.

It has insane battery life, it lasts multiple days of coding, compilation, system upgrades, etc. on one charge.

Plus you can always replace / upgrade the battery / RAM / drive / etc. so you can always continue improving the performance if you want.

Meanwhile the Apple laptop I got from work with an astounding 32 GB of RAM has the fans whirring all the time from just running a Google Meet in Chrome, and you can't even use it in "clamshell" mode because it has so many weird bugs, so I have to keep the screen slightly propped open while it's connected to my monitors. T440s handles don't-suspend-on-lid-off perfectly. Macbook won't even allow you to do this if you're running on battery, you have to be plugged in.

Re: An Open Letter Against Apple's Privacy-Invasive Content Scanning Technology

#310
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that my Pixel with CalyxOS and microG doesn't have any text to speech engine. So the maps apps work, but with no turn by turn audio.

RHVoice is a free and open source text-to-speech output engine for Android. Try it out: - F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.github.olga_yakovleva.rh... - GitHub: https://github.com/RHVoice/RHVoice Alternatively, if you prefer Google's closed source text-to-speech engine (that is preinstalled on most commercial Android devices), you can download Speech Services by Google through Aurora Store: - https://play…

Thanks! I didn't know about RHVoice. I tried installing a couple others I found through searching F-Droid, but nothing worked. I just installed RHVoice.
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