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by GeekyBear 1777 days ago
There is a story that has information direct from the horses mouth on how Apple will approach this as opposed to how Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and the rest already do.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/10/interview-apples-head-of-p...

Highlights:

Unlike Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and the rest Apple has not been scanning your online data (iCloud) for the past decade.

When this is turned on, only images you attempt upload to iCloud will be scanned.

If you turn off photo synching to iCloud, nothing will be scanned.

If photo scanning shows that many images on your device match known kiddie porn images (not just one), a human will review the data to make sure passing it on to the authorities is called for or if there have been multiple false positives.

If multiple images do not match known kiddie porn images, nothing happens.

1 comments

I don't think the concern is scanning and uploading images. This could be justified in some cases. But once you open this door, it can easily expand to scan for other things. And people don't always read the notices for every update.
We already know that Apple will publicly fight Government demands to break device encryption.

They have already proven that.

They previously said they couldn't comply. Now they will have to say they won't comply.
They can't comply now.

Unlike Google, they set up a system where no data hits Apple's server unless multiple images match known examples of kiddie porn.

The key word is publicly... Or I missed <sarcasm> tags?
Did I miss the sarcasm tag when it is implied that Google is immune to government demands in a manner that Apple is not?
Google does not have the capability to scan local files on your device. They still have the luxury of answering "we can't" to such demands.

But Google steps on your privacy in so many other ways, it's probably not worth defending this one technicality.

Google conducts the exact same scans on their own servers, which means the results for a single false positive must be handed over to anyone with a subpoena.

With Apple's system, no data hits their servers until multiple images match known examples of kiddie porn.

If there is a single false positive, Apple won't even know about it.

You can't provide data you never had, so Apple's system is much more private.

They cannot publicly fight FISA court gag orders. They can't even so much as mention those.