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In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

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Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#12
post #7
post #3

"the screeching voices of the minority" is how they refer to those who value privacy...

Technically that description was from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, not from anyone at Apple.

The Apple VP did say the NCMEC note was incredibly motivating though. And he could have distanced himself from that part. Or told the NCMEC director he'd love to share her note with the staff if she removed the disrespect.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#13
I don't understand the claim that this system improves their ability to detect anything. If it's really true that the system only works on data uploaded to icloud then apple could have easily just done all the scanning in the cloud, because icloud is not end-to-end encrypted. In that case, all this feature does is move the computational cost of scanning from Apple's datacenters to Apple's users, saving Apple money and costing users battery life. It doesn't change anything about how effective the scanning can be. Unless I misunderstand how it works.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#14
post #3

"the screeching voices of the minority" is how they refer to those who value privacy...

That's entire memo sounds completely tone deaf and delusional.

It's shocking to me that they don't even acklowege the critisms and fully ignore them. It would be one thing if they said that the potential implications are worth it, but they don't even acklowege them.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#15
The NCMEC director claimed "many thousands of sexually exploited victimized children will be rescued" because of this system. It can't detect new abuse images if I understand correctly. And don't most arrests happen after a victim talks to another adult? Or someone notices signs? Are many thousands of active child molesters discovered through scanning online photos?

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#16

A system on my phone where it has a list of bad files and a threshold on how many of those files are allowed. If the threshold is reached Apple can read them. Both the bad files list and threshold is controlled by Apple and is explicitly designed to be un-auditable... Honestly I would have been fine with Apple scanning my all photos after they are uploaded to iCloud but this is deeply disturbing

How is this system, where Apple sees far less photos, worse?

You can't audit anything Apple does on their servers.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#17
post #16

A system on my phone where it has a list of bad files and a threshold on how many of those files are allowed. If the threshold is reached Apple can read them. Both the bad files list and threshold is controlled by Apple and is explicitly designed to be un-auditable... Honestly I would have been fine with Apple scanning my all photos after they are uploaded to iCloud but this is deeply disturbing

How is this system, where Apple sees far less photos, worse? You can't audit anything Apple does on their servers.

Now that a fully built system for breaking end-to-end encryption is shipped directly in the OS, we're one configuration change away from massive scope creep.

First terrorist content, then "misinformation", then political speech. Apple will be unable to resist government demands to use this preexisting backdoor with a different set of perceptual hashes.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#19

The NCMEC director claimed "many thousands of sexually exploited victimized children will be rescued" because of this system. It can't detect new abuse images if I understand correctly. And don't most arrests happen after a victim talks to another adult? Or someone notices signs? Are many thousands of active child molesters discovered through scanning online photos?

NCMEC is clearly lying (for one thing, CSAM users will stop using iPhone/iCloud for CSAM), but the theory is that someone who collects images is likely to (a) have some new not yet indexed images in the collection, which can be investigated, (b) might he abusing children.

IMO posession of CSAM should be legal but heavily regulated, so that users who don't want to hurt children (probably will most of them) cooperate with authorities to investigate producer (child abusers), get connected to mental health care, and not be driven into a criminal underworld full of blackmail.

Re: In internal memo, Apple addresses concerns around new Photo scanning features

#20
post #16

A system on my phone where it has a list of bad files and a threshold on how many of those files are allowed. If the threshold is reached Apple can read them. Both the bad files list and threshold is controlled by Apple and is explicitly designed to be un-auditable... Honestly I would have been fine with Apple scanning my all photos after they are uploaded to iCloud but this is deeply disturbing

How is this system, where Apple sees far less photos, worse? You can't audit anything Apple does on their servers.

>How is this system, where Apple sees far less photos, worse?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_collision

option three : don't allow Apple to judge user data at all.

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