[firebaze]

I'll never buy anything from Apple again. Apple was to me the walled but good-willed garden, caring about their profits by respecting their customers and taking a stance against widespread anti-democratic tendencies. I own an iWatch, two iPhones and two MacBook Pros (one privately owned, one from my current employer).

The selling points of apple to me were to provide excellent hardware combined with excellent software, combined with a guarantee to protect my privacy.

The first point still holds true, the 2nd not so much anymore, and the 3rd was destroyed by the most recent move.

My stance will cause a ripple effect, I convinced quite a few people to use apple if they can afford it due to their general stance and their commitment to democratic values. Not all of them will listen if I now tell the opposite story, but most will. I hope Apple feels the effects of this decision in one of the upcoming stock-holder meetings.

Of course, I don't believe this helps against child abuse or any crime at all, in fact I believe the opposite effect happens: criminals probably know about moves like this one far earlier than the general public and react accordingly.

[starkd]

this is why I refuse to get into the habit of using a smart phone. I'm totally against child porn, but, while doing nothing to fight child porn, it will allow a foothold to eventually scan for who knows what. Criminals will easily evade it by turning off the scanning.

[Abishek_Muthian]

> Apple was to me the walled but good-willed garden

Apple knew a supplier was using child labor but took 3 years to fully cut ties[1].

> taking a stance against widespread anti-democratic tendencies.

"While US lawmakers have proposed legislation aimed on curbing American companies' ability to use forced Uyghur labor, Apple sought to weaken the bill, The New York Times reported last month."[1]

> caring about their profits by respecting their customers

"Cook argued that people choose iOS specifically so they won’t have to make risky decisions with sensitive data."[2]

But also,

"Apple takes flak for disputing iOS security"[3]

---

Apple has always been ripe with hypocrisy, It's astonishing to see people claiming the latest incident to be like the only blemish on its record.

If a lone developer from some village releases a software and makes a claim that its secure we'd rush to ask for source code, 3rd party security audit and what not; But if Apple asks for our trust because it's Apple, Why not the hardware is shiny right?

When did the premise for security shift from 'zero trust' to 'Apps open fast, So I'm fine with it'?

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-knowingly-used-child-l...

[2] https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/22/22448139/tim-cook-epic-fo...

[3] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/apple...

[stephenr]

Yeah ok mr influencer. I’ll be sure not to get knocked off my canoe by your ripples.

There are already cases linked in other comments where the same hash dataset has had valid hits, via Google-stored photos, iirc.

All your posturing is just that: posturing. As with so many things they offer via iCloud, Apple does offer non-cloud solutions for most things their devices do, and in such scenarios the data is not subjected to the things people often object to (hash scanning in this case, unencrypted iOS backups, etc etc).

As has been pointed out elsewhere this is not about breaking encryption or arbitrarily browsing through all your dick pics or whatever. It’s a compromise to be able to say that Apple is doing something with a reasonable expectation of effectiveness to combat child abuse materials, without needing to just give whichever prick inhabits the FBI directors chair an easy way to view everything you store in iCloud.

And as I said if you’re not happy with that compromise you can turn off iCloud photos, the same as you can turn off iCloud backups.

So, you can believe all you want about what criminals will or won’t do or about how smart they are or are not, and even about how much influence you have over other peoples buying decisions. Just remember though, believing something doesn’t necessarily mean you’re right.