[jeremygaither]

I agree with the article that not only are implementation problems a potential threat, but it also sets a dangerous precedent. I also understand that Apple is attempting to compromise with governments that are still pressuring it to create an encryption back door or hand over keys (which it did in China by having another company operate iCloud there). Governments have often used the pursuit and prosecution of child abusers and terrorists as a scapegoat for eroding privacy for all its citizens. Privacy and liberty versus the lawful pursuit of criminals are challenging problems to balance, especially when governments and law enforcement want a free pass searching for whatever content they deem illegal. Governments decide what photos, communications, and even thoughts (if they could) are legal and which one are illegal. Who knows what some (new) governments may decree new obscenity laws? They could legislate that some pictures once considered lawful and innocent are now unlawful and obscene, retroactively, and ask or attempt to force Apple to search for those newly criminal images.

Apple’s new image scanning technology is almost as much of a backdoor to individuals' privacy as handing out their device decryption keys on demand. Except with this new tech, finding criminal activity is even easier for law enforcement, as Apple will attempt to locate criminals for them.

That said, there are better privacy tools available for those that need as much privacy as possible, but they are nowhere near as user-friendly as Apple's devices. For instance, if this new search tool only searches images uploaded to iCloud, as claimed, what stops a pedophile or a journalist from disabling iCloud photo storage and synchronizing photos manually? It is extra work, but not difficult. Keeping average everyday things and activities, such as web browsing history, mostly private requires more effort and expertise than manually copying photos between a phone and a computer.

[jasamer]

The CSAM scanning solution allows law enforcement to do one thing, assuming they have full control over the image hash database: find people who have multiple photos that are already known to law enforcement that they upload to iCloud.

How would you use this to find criminals in general? I have a hard time to think of a very useful example. Maybe photos of bomb plans downloaded somewhere from the internet that are known to be used by criminal groups?

As to what stops a pedophile or a journalist form disabling iCloud photo storage: Absolutely nothing. This solution is supposed catch people storing CSAM photos in iCloud, that's it. A careful pedophile will not be caught by this.