Live data from Hacker News

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

9to5mac.com

251–260 of 430 posts

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

#251
post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see whataboutism (google drive scans! ms scans!) and "here are the technical details of why we can't just look..." . The bottom line is that none of that matters. the 99.999% problem is Apple is spying on you on your. own. device. I don't know how many techies I've had to shoosh and point that out. It doesnt matter what kind of hash or algo or "layers of protection" are being used. What they are doing is inherently…

The mistake here is thinking iphone is your own device. If they can view anything stored there, remove anything from there, control anything you install and run, disable it at any moment they wish - do you actually own it, or you just granted the use of it as long as Apple approves of it? Apple certainly doesn't ask your permission to do anything on "your own device" - but you have to ask theirs. Is that how ownershi…

Having ditched Apple laptops this year (after 18 years of Mac computers) for Linux (on System76 hw), I've been wondering what it would take to pry the iPhone out of my hands. I think I've found it.

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

#253

Apple's mistake is that they seemingly believe there is pushback because people misunderstand how it works. The reality is more nuanced: People understand exactly how it works, and how it works is that it is turn-key onboard spyware, that Apple pinky-swears isn't being used wrong today . For example if the scope/mission expands (e.g. foreign governments), suddenly you've created a drag-net for whatever "badness" is o…

They make the premise so innocuous that it would seem unreasonable to object, eg who would object to keeping kids safe? However it's what comes after this, the slippery slope of what to enforce and not. The genie doesn't go back in the bottle.

Exactly. It's the same argument when Corona contact-tracing was discussed and later implemented.

First using paper forms and later using apps.

Why would you object to limiting the spread of the Coronavirus ?

Fast forward to the present where law enforcement in Germany, Australia and Singapore have used contact-tracing for other purposes.

So no to this plan from Apple, they must discard all plans of client-side scanning and instead increase their privacy stance.

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

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah ok, so as long as it is profitable ethics don't matter. Got it.

Companies don't have to be ethical, they just have to be legal.

This is the sort of reasoning that got us into all this crap in the first place, and it certainly won't get us out of it.

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

#255
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple substitutes keys, then that is a detectable event (by jailbroken devices) and that would make news. This is Apple explicitly announcing they are actively backdooring all iOS and Mac devices, and using your CPU cycles to determine whether you should be reported to the government.

Not really. Key management is done by the SEP, which can’t be introspected. And again, database updates take an iOS update so the back door threat is the exact same.

> database updates take an iOS update

macOS already supports silent database updates, for example for Gatekeeper and MRT signatures.

Why wouldn’t Apple use this feature on iOS, too?

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

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, there's a "we can't show you the exact CP image that one of yours matched, because that would also be illegal" catch-22 that basically gives them the power to shroud this whole system in legally-obligated secrecy. Secrecy which will no doubt be abused to hide much more.

I do worry this is basically automating and scaling up the whole "idiot working at the mall photo development booth turns family in for child porn because they took pictures of 3 year old in bath" story that shows up every now and then.

It's exactly that though. Except instead of the "idiot" it's "completely dumb neural network".

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

#257

Apple's mistake is that they seemingly believe there is pushback because people misunderstand how it works. The reality is more nuanced: People understand exactly how it works, and how it works is that it is turn-key onboard spyware, that Apple pinky-swears isn't being used wrong today . For example if the scope/mission expands (e.g. foreign governments), suddenly you've created a drag-net for whatever "badness" is o…

Sometimes the slippery slope is not a fallacy, but the natural consequence of seeking more control. This feature can be horribly misused in the future, for example, to find people who have sent/received/downloaded Tiannanmen pictures, because instant messaging pictures can be automatically added to your albums. You can't trust a feature whose only impediment from being abused in the future is such pinky promise.

If I learned anything in my lifetime, it’s that “slippery slope” is not, in fact, a fallacy at all. Rather, it’s a rule of thumb.

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

#258

I really don’t understand why apple is doing this. What point are they trying to score and from whom ? Do they think implementing a spyware in iPhone would boost sales? Or does it bring revenue from charging government agency to use this feature? I just don’t get it.

My conspiracy theory is they're doing this to appeal to the right and all The Qanon believers.

Sadly, it's probably really to appeal to China or the US government.

I wouldn't be shocked to hear of some secret court order ordering them to add some kind of backdoor, and this legally meets the bare minimum.

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

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to be operating under the assumption that device owners are the only customers of the Apple ecosystem.

Ambiguous retorts like this make you sound intelligent but offer little to the discussion. If the adversary is the USA or China, I have bad news for you: every major democracy has planned encryption regulation which is unimaginably worse than what was announced here.

Telling me what I already know is not really contributing much, either.

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

#260

I really don’t understand why apple is doing this. What point are they trying to score and from whom ? Do they think implementing a spyware in iPhone would boost sales? Or does it bring revenue from charging government agency to use this feature? I just don’t get it.

My own pet theory is that the new far left have gone full circle and have become as puritanical as those they despised. (Just look at social media talking about what outfits women wear in the olympics, thinking that they show too much skin. It's arguments from the early 1900s come back around.)
Post reply on HN