US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police • Hacker News Board

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#11

Post by themacks » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 1:34 AM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #9

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And i was a competative swimmer. Nobody should fault my parents for posting images of me in a speedo, nor should i hesitate from posting them myself.

They're not screening for kids and bare skin specifically. It's just a first heuristic to narrow down the pool of photos that conceivably might be child porn to something that human investigators can feasibly check. Per the article, 90% of the kids-and-bare-skin photos received are found to be totally innocuous once a human looks at them; no action is taken, and the photos and associated personal info are removed fro…

> a human looks at them

That's the problem most people have with this.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#12

Post by gpm » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 1:34 AM UTC

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #9

sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And i was a competative swimmer. Nobody should fault my parents for posting images of me in a speedo, nor should i hesitate from posting them myself.

They're not screening for kids and bare skin specifically. It's just a first heuristic to narrow down the pool of photos that conceivably might be child porn to something that human investigators can feasibly check. Per the article, 90% of the kids-and-bare-skin photos received are found to be totally innocuous once a human looks at them; no action is taken, and the photos and associated personal info are removed fro…

> It's just a first heuristic to narrow down the pool of photos that conceivably might be child porn to something that human investigators can feasibly check.

Yes, but it's an invasion of privacy to even have someone looking at pictures that weren't shared publicly. Basically what you've just said is that 90% of the time they are invading innocent peoples privacy.

Child porn is really bad, the right to privacy is also really important, I'm not convinced they've made the right decision here.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#13

Post by partisan » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 1:44 AM UTC

themacks wrote: post #11

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not screening for kids and bare skin specifically. It's just a first heuristic to narrow down the pool of photos that conceivably might be child porn to something that human investigators can feasibly check. Per the article, 90% of the kids-and-bare-skin photos received are found to be totally innocuous once a human looks at them; no action is taken, and the photos and associated personal info are removed fro…

> a human looks at them That's the problem most people have with this.

I’m not sure how anyone could defend this part without cringing at the implications for privacy.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#14

Post by ahakki » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:00 AM UTC

gagabity wrote: post #4

This article makes no sense.

Here's the link to the NZZ am Sonntag article (I think) this is referring to: https://nzzas.nzz.ch/schweiz/kinderpornografie-das-fbi-stoes...

sadly I don't have a subscription :( but if anyone does, this might make more sense.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#15

Post by techer » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:07 AM UTC

Giving your photos to a lab to be developed sometimes resulted in police being alerted...although this is based on my hazy memory.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#16

Post by aaomidi » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:09 AM UTC

LilBytes wrote: post #10

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not screening for kids and bare skin specifically. It's just a first heuristic to narrow down the pool of photos that conceivably might be child porn to something that human investigators can feasibly check. Per the article, 90% of the kids-and-bare-skin photos received are found to be totally innocuous once a human looks at them; no action is taken, and the photos and associated personal info are removed fro…

Except I'm not comfortable with my families photographs being screened by a third party that I don't know or have met, and this occurring explicitly without my knowledge. So to stop child pornography an all-seeing third party vets my families photographs even when shared privately via WhatsApp or similar? That's fucked.

Stop using Facebook.

Like.....what do you expect?

I'm not trying to blame you here but since you're on this website I assume you're more generally knowledgable about stuff happening. We've known about variations of this for so long.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#17

Post by cantrevealname » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:11 AM UTC

> The algorithm detects the content whether it’s posted online or shared via a messaging app like WhatsApp.

That statement contradicts Whatsapp official statement that all content is end-to-end encrypted: “WhatsApp ... we built end-to-end encryption into our app. When end-to-end encrypted, your messages, photos, videos, voice messages, documents, and calls are secured from falling into the wrong hands. Only you and the person you're communicating with can read what is sent, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.”

In this case, I believe Whatsapp more than I believe a technically illiterate writer on a government website that failed to understand some nuance. Maybe some Whatsapp users forwarded questionable content they’ve received to the authorities, then the algorithm scanned that content. That’s very different than secret scanning happening within Whatsapp.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#18

Post by aaomidi » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:11 AM UTC

jMyles wrote: post #3

> In an effort to combat child pornography, providers like Facebook and Google automatically screen all photos for the presence of children and bare skin. The presumption that childhood nudity needs to be screened in such a way is, itself, cringey and creepy and perhaps not without a hint of pedophilia. > The algorithm detects the content whether it’s posted online or shared via a messaging app like WhatsApp. OK, so…

As someone who was raised a nudist this is actually hilarious and if I was a kid now my parents would've probably got a visit from the police.

Ugh.

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#19

Post by mturilin » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:14 AM UTC

I wonder if Apple and Google employees review my photos stored in my cloud accounts?

Re: US apps send thousands of private photos to Swiss police

#20

Post by glloydell » Mon, Sep 30, 2019, 2:21 AM UTC

Does this only apply to the Swiss government, or is Facebook sharing any pictures that hit their filters with law enforcement agencies of whatever country you happen to be living in?