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Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

lapcatsoftware.com

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Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#181

Post by nimih »

bobsomers wrote: post #166
throwaway81523 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what a good privacy story looks like. A good privacy story actually looks like not sending any info to anyone else anywhere at any time.

Sure, but if we follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion, we must move to a cabin in the woods, 100 miles from the nearest civilization, growing our own food and never connecting our computing devices to anything resembling a network.

I've read the post you're responding to like 3 times, and after pondering it deeply, I'm pretty sure the conclusion of their line of thinking pretty definitively stops at "Apple should not be sending data off the device without the user requesting it." If you think otherwise, you should maybe provide more of an argument.

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#182

Post by [deleted] »

walterbell wrote: post #16

> On macOS, I can usually prevent Apple software from phoning home by using Little Snitch. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't allow anything like Little Snitch on iOS. On Android, NetGuard uses a "local VPN" to firewall outgoing traffic. Could the same be done on iOS, or does Apple network traffic bypass VPNs? Lockdown mentions ads, but not Apple servers, https://lockdownprivacy.com/ . Apple does publish IP ranges for diff…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#183

Post by paxys »

So basically - You take a picture. Apple encrypts it and uploads it to their server. The server matches the (still encrypted) picture to a database and tells your device "this picture contains the Eiffel Tower". Later when you search for Eiffel Tower on your device the photo pops up.

Is the complexity and security risk really worth it for such a niche feature?

It's also funny that Apple is simultaneously saying "don't worry the photo is encrypted so we can't read it" and "we are extracting data from the encrypted photo to enhance your experience".

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#185

Post by 0points »

globalnode wrote: post #146

whats the 'feature' in the app that requires sending a hash off device?

It's called "Enhanced Visual Search" and they described it like this:

> Allow this device to privately match places in your photos with a global index maintained by Apple so you can search by almost any landmark or point of interest.

I guess it's useful if you get very lost and don't recognize the pyramids right in front of you, and forgot you have a GPS in the phone.

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#186

Post by dialup_sounds »

eptcyka wrote: post #173
bobsomers wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but if we follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion, we must move to a cabin in the woods, 100 miles from the nearest civilization, growing our own food and never connecting our computing devices to anything resembling a network.

It is a spectrum, and I'd love to be able to draw my own line. I have my own photo storage solution. I do not need Apple's.

This entire post is about a setting in Apple's Photos app.

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#187

Post by nmilo »

nimih wrote: post #181
bobsomers wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but if we follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion, we must move to a cabin in the woods, 100 miles from the nearest civilization, growing our own food and never connecting our computing devices to anything resembling a network.

I've read the post you're responding to like 3 times, and after pondering it deeply, I'm pretty sure the conclusion of their line of thinking pretty definitively stops at "Apple should not be sending data off the device without the user requesting it." If you think otherwise, you should maybe provide more of an argument.

The line of thinking is right there: "not sending any info to anyone else anywhere at any time"

There are way more egregious privacy concerns than sending non-reversibly encrypted noisy photos to Apple. Why draw the line here and not the far worse things happening on your phone and computer right now?

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#189

Post by satvikpendem »

bobsomers wrote: post #166
throwaway81523 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is what a good privacy story looks like. A good privacy story actually looks like not sending any info to anyone else anywhere at any time.

Sure, but if we follow that line of thinking to its logical conclusion, we must move to a cabin in the woods, 100 miles from the nearest civilization, growing our own food and never connecting our computing devices to anything resembling a network.

Slippery slope fallacy. Nothing you said derives from not wanting to send information to remote servers, it's a false dichotomy.

Re: Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15

#190

Post by 0points »

mentalgear wrote: post #106
thought_alarm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not send your photos to be indexed on Apple servers.

it literally says it uses global search index on the label below the check mark. It seems more than likely that (now or at least in the long run) they will use user data to enhance this index.

It's funny how one can use "literally" while almost demonstrating illiteracy.

It's right there in the help text:

> Allow this device to privately match places in your photos with a global index maintained by Apple so you can search by almost any landmark or point of interest.

They are saying that they match your photo against their global index.

They are not saying that they will add your photo to their global index.

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