Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#351

Post by dijit » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:55 AM UTC

BloodyIron wrote: post #346

dijit wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in my limited experience with the law, they tend to really go for you if you aren't the kind of person who enjoys breaking the law. It's almost like they can spot an easy target. Deal drugs and conduct yourself violently in society, sit with a gang and destroy property... Police seem to have a hard time with you. Push someone over who is threatening to knock your teeth out when you're walking with your wife and kids.…

Quotas?

Dunno, probably just easier to “catch” people who think that they are good people, they think the police is on their side.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#352

Post by handedness » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 1:57 AM UTC

Pfhortune wrote: post #105

SXX wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple is very much like WhatsApp. Yes you cant perfectly trust their E2EE against state actors, but both in fact put some effort into making world have little bit more privacy. At least on Desktop we have usable Linux, but on the phones there is literally nothing usable because thanks to Google efforts switching to GrapheneOS mean tons of apps either not working or break every few months. Yes its possible to make And…

> hanks to Google efforts switching to GrapheneOS mean tons of apps either not working or break every few months. I've been using GrapheneOS for years and that hasn't been my experience. There are two financial apps that don't work for me, and that's it. Pretty much everything else I use is fine. But, to be fair, I'm very scrupulous about my apps and tend to avoid installing an app for every little thing that wants m…

My experience is the same as yours, and I run a huge number of apps for work purposes. A few have required disabling exploit protection but otherwise work fine.

With only one brief exception, all of my financial institution's apps have worked fine, too, including some banks I see drive-by complaints about on here.

Anyone curious should refer to the tracker: https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compa...

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#353

Post by GeekyBear » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:02 AM UTC

xboxnolifes wrote: post #262

GeekyBear wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel that Apple open pandora's box with the client-side scanning. That box has been open for years now. Big brother is already watching what you do on your Android device. > A Dad Took Photos of His Naked Toddler for the Doctor. Google Flagged Him as a Criminal. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveil...

I'm pretty sure this article if from after Apple introduced (floated the idea of?) client-side scanning. I'm not sure it really bolsters the idea that it's been open for years.

You do know that we are discussing something that Apple talked about doing, but never did vs. something that Google has been doing for years?

And no, this particular article about Google attempting to have innocent parents arrested was published before Apple even discussed scanning images users manually uploaded to their publicly accessible web album on iCloud.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#354

Post by ryandrake » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:03 AM UTC

derektank wrote: post #315

ryandrake wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, until at least one non-ringleader Epstein party participant goes to jail, I'm not going to believe the US actually gives a shit about protecting children.

There’s no concrete evidence that anyone besides Epstein (and by extension Maxwell, who assisted Epstein) actually abused children. Besides the testimony of Virginia Giuffre, nobody else has claimed they were sexually assaulted as minors (Sjoberg was groped by Prince Andrew at Epstein’s home when she was in her early 20s). And neither the FBI nor the Palm Beach PD found physical evidence of such or communications bet…

I'd at least expect there to be an investigation, based on the huge volume of information that already exists. Unless we believe that the files are just 3 million pages of casserole recipes and that the people who visited just went to play Settlers of Catan.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#355

Post by xethos » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:07 AM UTC

derektank wrote: post #311

mschuster91 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The claim is we will restrict/license/outlaw xyz for the kids, but really, a data-drive approach would have focused on different things entirely (eg additional behavioral health services for kids, suicide prevention etc) Well, most of Europe simply has banned guns in the hands of civilians instead, so that's some data as well. The only reason why the US is so extremely lax on firearms is because people keep blather…

>The only reason why the US is so extremely lax on firearms is because people keep blathering on about how guns are the last line of defense against a tyrannical government No, it’s because the right to own firearms is very explicitly stated in our constitution and the constitution requires an extreme super majority to update. A 50%+1 majority is all that’s required to ban civilian ownership of guns in most parliamen…

> the right to own firearms is very explicitly stated in our constitution

The right to bear arms does not necessarily mean firearms. Arms doesn't necessarily even have to include firearms, and America is already pretty damn strict about certain armaments, such as sub-machine guns.

Americans are allowed to have certain firearms, sometimes, in some places. I'm not sure how one squares that with the blanket statement from the American constitution that Americans have the right to bear arms, unless it's simply an impossibly poorly-informed citizenry

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#356

Post by teaearlgraycold » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:10 AM UTC

dijit wrote: post #345

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s up with the cop that cited them for that?

in my limited experience with the law, they tend to really go for you if you aren't the kind of person who enjoys breaking the law. It's almost like they can spot an easy target. Deal drugs and conduct yourself violently in society, sit with a gang and destroy property... Police seem to have a hard time with you. Push someone over who is threatening to knock your teeth out when you're walking with your wife and kids.…

Don't talk to the police!

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#357

Post by ipaddr » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:18 AM UTC

derektank wrote: post #315

ryandrake wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, until at least one non-ringleader Epstein party participant goes to jail, I'm not going to believe the US actually gives a shit about protecting children.

There’s no concrete evidence that anyone besides Epstein (and by extension Maxwell, who assisted Epstein) actually abused children. Besides the testimony of Virginia Giuffre, nobody else has claimed they were sexually assaulted as minors (Sjoberg was groped by Prince Andrew at Epstein’s home when she was in her early 20s). And neither the FBI nor the Palm Beach PD found physical evidence of such or communications bet…

There is if someone would follow the money trail. Plenty of hard facts to reach a guilty outcome. And over half of the papers haven't been released. If someone motivated comes to power there is a good chance.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#358

Post by mallets » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:23 AM UTC

jaharios wrote: post #300

mschuster91 wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The claim is we will restrict/license/outlaw xyz for the kids, but really, a data-drive approach would have focused on different things entirely (eg additional behavioral health services for kids, suicide prevention etc) Well, most of Europe simply has banned guns in the hands of civilians instead, so that's some data as well. The only reason why the US is so extremely lax on firearms is because people keep blather…

> Vote in a literal tyrant. Tyrant? You may disagree with him, but he got in through the system. Now if he doesn't get out that is another story.

Being a tyrant has little to do with term limits or office duration.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#359

Post by rationalist » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

xboxnolifes wrote: post #261

schrodinger wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you see apologies? I read it basically as “schools are even worse than churches and scouts yet are overlooked,” nothing apologizing for the churches.

HN is very anti-religion. It turns off their brain when they see it and leads to these kinds of responses.

Some HN users probably are, but not all, and I doubt not a majority. A majority might not be religious, but not being religious does not automatically mean anti-religion. There are occasionally comments that show an espousal of a god that do get upvotes.

Calling someone's god, an "imaginary friend" is probably a trait of someone very anti-religious though. I haven't read all the different religious texts, but I highly doubt any of them call their god a friend. Perhaps Jesus could be considered friendly, but I don't think the Bible says that a Christian must consider Jesus as their friend. I think it's more like how parents should be parents and not friends. I imagine in most if not all relgions, gods should be gods and not friends.

Re: Apple defeats liability for not scanning iCloud for CSAM

#360

Post by rootusrootus » Wed, Jul 22, 2026, 2:56 AM UTC

polski-g wrote: post #39

stronglikedan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still a shade of gray to me. If I offered some homegrown cloud storage to my friends, and one of them uploaded CSAM to it, you can bet your ass that I would be arrested for it.

Does Sundar get arrested if someone uploaded CSAM to GDrive?

The law has exceptions for electronic service providers who report what they find on their storage. If you are operating a service for friends at no charge with no business plan you probably will have to work a bit harder to avail yourself of that exception. Might be best to charge a nominal fee and at least pretend to be doing it as a service provider.