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

appleprivacyletter.com

171–180 of 713 posts

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

#171
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are massively under estimating what this change means if you think it is "pretty tame change" Clearly you do not understand the full ramification of what is happening here.

What are the ramifications that I "do not understand"? I will repeat: It is a very tame change. Were you frantic and delirious when a neural network first identified a dog in your photos? Isn't that the slippery slope to it reporting you to the authorities for something bong shaped? Speaking of which, every bit of fear mongering relies upon a slippery slope fallacy. What is clearly a PR move is somehow actually the m…

> Why would Apple do that?

Because it gets required to by the laws of countries responsible for most of their market? And because authoritarian regimes intentionally blur the lines between criminal and political surveillance over time, making it harder for companies to draw hard policy lines? Concern about this doesn't require any bond villains, it just requires well-intentioned pragmatists on one side and idealogical politicos on the other.

FWIW, I think you have a point about the doom-saying. Countries with good judicial protections around privacy already use it as a backstop against dirty tricks where folks use one type of surveillance to require another. But it makes sense to wonder how those barriers will erode over time, and to worry about places where they don't exist.

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

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On phones: I'm considering a Pixel device with https://calyxos.org/ The main limitations will be the featureset of MicroG (no ~maps~/wearOS/auto). Possible issues with important apps like those for banking. On cloud: Synology Diskstation is amazing. Only use it through a local VPN though. edit: maps work (see reply)

Are the only phone options iOS or Android? I’m also considering leaving my iPhone behind because of this privacy violation but I’m definitely not moving to Google. That seems like two steps back.

Calyx is a degoogled Android ROM. It's probably the best choice until mobile Linux improves.

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

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On phones: I'm considering a Pixel device with https://calyxos.org/ The main limitations will be the featureset of MicroG (no ~maps~/wearOS/auto). Possible issues with important apps like those for banking. On cloud: Synology Diskstation is amazing. Only use it through a local VPN though. edit: maps work (see reply)

> no maps I don't experience any issues using mapping apps on Android with microG instead of Google Play Services. Closed source navigation apps including Google Maps, HERE WeGo, and Magic Earth work just fine. Open source navigation apps like Organic Maps and OsmAnd also work with no problems.

Thank you for that insight! My comment was based on some (older) Reddit comments. I'm glad to hear there are working apps.

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

#174
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.

>touting itself as a privacy-centric alternative

There is a difference between selling your data to the highest bidder through a stalker capitalism ecosystem and giving governments carte blanche access.

I am not at all advocating for the latter, but if you are fighting that battle, CP is not the hill to die on.

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

#175

I know the privacy approach Apple has been pushing was just marketing, but I didn't care too much because I enjoyed my iPhone and M1 macbook. Because of this decision (and the fact that my iPhone more-or-less facilitates poor habits throughout my life), I'm considering moving completely out of the Apple ecosystem. Does anyone have any recommendations for replacements? * On laptops: I have an X1 carbon extreme running…

Laptop: Framework Laptop

Phone: Pixel with GrapheneOS or CalyxOS. In the future a Linux phone when the software improves.

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

#176

I know the privacy approach Apple has been pushing was just marketing, but I didn't care too much because I enjoyed my iPhone and M1 macbook. Because of this decision (and the fact that my iPhone more-or-less facilitates poor habits throughout my life), I'm considering moving completely out of the Apple ecosystem. Does anyone have any recommendations for replacements? * On laptops: I have an X1 carbon extreme running…

I use an hp spectre x360, it's not the most powerful thing in the world and has occasional issues knowing when to charge but otherwise I love it with ubuntu/i3wm

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

#177
post #101
post #50

Fixed: Chinese Government: Here is the NeuralHash for some child abuse imagery, please scan this user's phone and tell us if it's found. Apple: Sure we found it. Chinese Government: this user has unpermitted winnie the pooh memes. Send them to an internment camp.

Google: 'Sharing is caring'. Thanks for sharing all of this with us Apple Inc! [0] Amazon: Don't forget us too! [0] To Downvoters: Are you telling me that this is false? Even worse for the Gmail users. [1] I guess the outrage was already overdue with these tech giants. [0] https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/06/29/apple-is-now-goog... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/5/5970141/how-google-scans-y...

welcome to reddit

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

#178

I know the privacy approach Apple has been pushing was just marketing, but I didn't care too much because I enjoyed my iPhone and M1 macbook. Because of this decision (and the fact that my iPhone more-or-less facilitates poor habits throughout my life), I'm considering moving completely out of the Apple ecosystem. Does anyone have any recommendations for replacements? * On laptops: I have an X1 carbon extreme running…

I'm suprised nobody has mentioned GrapheneOS: https://grapheneos.org/

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

#179
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.

Anyone who engaged in such a discussion with a non-technical person is going to defacto seem like an advocate for child pornography, similar to how advocating for encryption can easily be twisted to being pro-crime. Having said that, there is an enormous amount of misinformation and fear-mongering about a pretty tame change. This seems like so much ado about very close to nothing. a) They optionally scan messaged pho…

I guess the upside might be that this could be a compromise for them to start doing end to end encryption on iCloud backups and iCloud photo libraries. They might be able to argue that if they’re scanning for illegal content on the client side, then they don’t need to be able to decrypt on the cloud side… We’ll have to see, it’s still creepy but potentially a small net gain overall if that becomes an option…

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

#180
post #96

Both of the announced features sound fine on their own — Apple has always been able to scan iCloud and send your data to police [0], and PhotoDNA is a decade old; whereas on-device machine learning on kid phones does not (according to Apple) involve sending anything to Apple reviewers and the govt. But announcing both features in the same post makes it inevitable that they get conflated, e.g. “Apple’s machine learnin…

> Apple has always been able to scan iCloud and send your data to police

I don’t see how the article you linked to explains how Apple can “scan iCloud” for the police. What do you mean? It seems like they just hand data over for a specific warrant related to individual users.

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