[avianlyric]

iOS has been running complex Neural Nets on all your images for years now. It powers all their social features and search.

Apple have always had the capability, and have been advertising it as central selling point of new versions of iOS for years. That ship sailed along time ago.

[nicce]

Neural Net might be overkill as an example. Antivirus software has existed since 1980s[1].

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software

[JackGreyhat]

Does an AV report its findings to local govs?

[adventured]

What changed is Apple just signaled to the governments of the world what it's willing to do toward abusing user privacy and exactly how it can work. And hey, Apple, if you're willing to do that, why not just go a bit further and do this, because we're asking you to or else (and now we know you're obviously even more morally flexible than what you used to present yourself as).

Before that, Apple put up a front that they would fight for user privacy at every turn. They pitched that over and over and over again as a corporate ethos, a selling point. That was the facade at least, even if one is cynical and wants to pretend it was a lie. Now they're not even presenting the facade, which will open the flood gates dramatically. They went from a supposedly resisting agent, to a morally gray and willing agent at a minimum. Apple dumped an enormous vat of blood into the shark infested waters.

[nicce]

I think I disagree. Current move was improvement for user privacy, compared to what it used to be. Abuse is only on speculation, not on what has actually been done.

[pseudalopex]

Before is speculation. After is too late. When are people allowed to object?

[JackGreyhat]

Speculation as in "whats technically possible".