[GeekyBear]

Google has been scanning everything in your account for kiddie porn for the past decade.

>a man [was] arrested on child pornography charges, after Google tipped off authorities about illegal images found in the Houston suspect's Gmail account

https://techcrunch.com/2014/08/06/why-the-gmail-scan-that-le...

In the case of a false positive, that information lives on Google's server where it can be subpoenaed and misused to incriminate you.

We've seen it before with location data.

>Innocent man, 23, sues Arizona police for $1.5million after being arrested for murder and jailed for six days when Google's GPS tracker wrongly placed him at the scene of the 2018 crime

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7897319/Police-arre...

With Apple's system, a single false positive would never even leave the device. Multiple images have to be found to match known kiddie porn images before a human review is triggered.

[lou1306]

At least Google's policy with Gmail has always been clear: we give you free email, you allow us to mine your data. Same with Android and their other free services, more or less. Apple, on the other hand, is doing a complete about-face. People may have bought into iCloud (and the ecosystem, in general) due to Apple's stance on privacy, and now this?

> With Apple's system, a single false positive would never even leave the device.

"Apple's system" may change overnight and signal every single match, however. They likely will, if they ever start believing that false positives are de facto impossible.

[GeekyBear]

Google's policy is to scan everything in your account, not just your email, and they have been doing so for the past decade.

Apple is adding a much more private way to scan your iCloud photos only.

"Google's system" allows your data to be misused by anyone who can get a warrant.

[post_break]

That’s all great and all but Google hasn’t been touting privacy features as a selling point. With Apples decision to move forward with this I’m not beholden to any company for my phone. At least with android I can side load and do what I want.

[GeekyBear]

Not having any data on a single false positives ever leave your device is MUCH more private than having that data exist on Google's servers.

Also, I have huge doubts that Google is reviewing the data to be sure it isn't a false positive before handing it over to the authorities.

They very famously refuse to hire expensive human beings when flawed machine learning algorithms are cheaper.

[post_break]

I cant seem to reply to your other comment. Here is where they talk about expanding it to third party apps:

"Apple said that while it does not have anything to share today in terms of an announcement, expanding the child safety features to third parties so that users are even more broadly protected would be a desirable goal."

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/09/apple-child-safety-feat...

Do you really think they would go to all this trouble and then say oh you don't want to get scanned? Just turn off iCloud photos.

[GeekyBear]

>Do you really think they would go to all this trouble and then say oh you don't want to get scanned? Just turn off iCloud photos.

They have literally said exactly that.

>Q: So if iCloud Photos is disabled, the system does not work, which is the public language in the FAQ. I just wanted to ask specifically, when you disable iCloud Photos, does this system continue to create hashes of your photos on device, or is it completely inactive at that point?

A: If users are not using iCloud Photos, NeuralHash will not run

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

[post_break]

If you fundamentally believe that Apple would go to all this trouble, create hashes, machine learning, all the code required, all the work with the third party, just to tell the world including those they hope to catch they can disable it by simply turning off iCloud photos, then there really isn’t much left to discuss.

[GeekyBear]

If you choose to believe conspiracy theories instead of the truth, there really isn't much to discuss.

Apple has merely developed a way to scan the contents of their cloud in a way that keeps the data about false positives off their servers until they are reasonably sure there is an issue. (Multiple images must match known examples of kiddie porn before a human review is triggered)

Scanning on the server itself is way less private.

[post_break]

I never used iCloud photo. I never hosted my photos on Google photos. But when Apple talks about using their CSAM technology for 3rd party apps, even if I'm sending my photos to my private synology? Well that's when I see the writing on the wall and head out. There is no perfect candidate, but selling me on privacy, and doing what they are doing now is the line in the sand for me.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/08/09/apple-child-safety-feat...

[GeekyBear]

>when Apple talks about using their CSAM technology for 3rd party apps

Citation needed.

Apple has made no such claim and has made it clear that if you turn iCloud photos off, nothing is scanned.

>If users are not using iCloud Photos, NeuralHash will not run

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