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

appleprivacyletter.com

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

#291

Post by vladharbuz »

> To help address this, new technology in iOS and iPadOS* will allow Apple to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud Photos.

After reading OP, my understanding had been that this update will cause _all_ photos on Apple devices to be scanned. However, the above quote from Apple's statement seems to indicate that only photos uploaded to iCloud Photos are scanned (even though they are technically scanned offline).

This doesn't invalidate any of the points people are making, but it does seem the update does not directly affect those of us who never stored our photos “in the cloud”.

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

#292

Post by juniperplant »

bambax wrote: post #266
freediver wrote: post #63

While I applaud the goal, this is likely not to achieve it on its own. Those that should be affected are probably not using Messanger to begin with and if they are they can easilly switch to other communication apps. It is also not quite clear if Apple is taking a moral or legal stand here. If it is legal then this could in the future open doors to: - Scanning for other types of illegal content - Scanning for copyrig…

> While I applaud the goal Really? What is the goal? It's not to prevent child abuse, since passively looking at images is not, per se, abuse. It's also not to limit the making of child pornography, since this will only search for already existing and already known images that already exist in government databases. If you make new images that are not yet in said databases, you're fine. I'm not sure what the actual go…

> It's not to prevent child abuse, since passively looking at images is not, per se, abuse.

Consumption feeds production.

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

#294

Post by tomjen3 »

stephen_g wrote: post #179
defaultname wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

If they claim e2e, but we scan on the client side then we should sue them for deceptive marketing.

e2e means something specific and should be an absolute requirement in a post Snowdon age, not something that is optional or a compromise.

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

#295

Post by juniperplant »

AJRF wrote: post #258

Anyone in London area want to buy a 2020 M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM + 256GB SSD for £1000?

So... What's next? A Thinkpad with Linux? I really wish there was more competition. There is simply no other digital ecosystem that works as well as Apple's.

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

#296

Post by elagost »

chopin wrote: post #273
fragileone wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Phone: Pixel with GrapheneOS or CalyxOS I've seen this recommendation very often lately. As I am shopping for a new phone: Why is it that hardware directly from Google is recommended for putting another OS onto it (I've seen recommendations for LineageOS as well). What makes it better than any stock phone supported by LineageOS?

Consistency. All the Google hardware forever has allowed easy factory unlocking without a fuss, easy ways to restore to standard OS images without jumping through hoops, and are widely available. Plus they allow re-locking the booloader and the phone equivalent of enrolling your own custom secure boot keys. They also provide firmware updates for a long time so you can get platform/hardware patches too. CalyxOS does provide these in their images.

The 3a/4a are cheap and have headphone jacks and good cameras. What's not to love? Until they change their policy on unlocking bootloaders and installing custom OSs they're great devices. I still have a Nexus 5 that runs PostmarketOS and Ubuntu Touch, and if it completely breaks I can always use ADB/Fastboot to flash the Android 6 images that are still on Google's website. Don't even have to log in to get them.

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

#297

Post by KarlKode »

sdoering wrote: post #225
trashtester wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fixed further: 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 to some western company/instititution: We have detected unacceptable behavior from your employee/student/client/vendor. Please cancel them, or we will stop funding you.

Not too far from reality [1]. PhD student at Swiss University posts something critical on Twitter. Chinese intervene at his professor. Promotion gone with mildly interesting reasoning. Link to Swiss newspaper in German language. [1]: https://www.nzz.ch/schweiz/hsg-und-china-kritik-auf-twitter-...

Here is the answer from HSG (also in German): https://www.unisg.ch/de/wissen/newsroom/aktuell/rssnews/camp...

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

#298

Post by commoner »

ByteWelder wrote: post #173
commoner wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

If you're not sure whether an app is compatible with microG or a flavor of Android without Google Play Services, Plexus is a helpful database of crowdsourced compatibility ratings:

- Plexus: https://plexus.techlore.tech

- GitHub: https://github.com/techlore/plexus

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

#299

Post by dexwell »

xyst wrote: post #90
Croftengea wrote: post #75

Now I wonder how long will it take for this tech to reach macOS.

Later this year in the Monterey update. “ These features are coming later this year in updates to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey.*” — https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

Of the three new features mentioned, the CSAM scanning one is not yet coming to Monterey.

> new technology in iOS and iPadOS* will allow Apple to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud Photos.

> * Features available in the U.S.

The iMessage and Siri feature paragraphs do mention Monterey.

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

#300

Post by guitarbill »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #105

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…

As someone else mentioned, for a NAS using TrueNAS (used to be FreeNAS) is easy enough and quite satisfying. You can find plenty of guides.

In general, you need to balance budget, capacity requirements, and form factor. Old servers are often great. Big disks seem like a good idea, but for rebuild times going over 4TB is horrible.

However, unfortunately HDD prices right now are horrible...

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