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by diego_sandoval 1000 days ago
Even if done locally, it's still creepy.
4 comments

Why? Its a slab of silicon scanning a representation of a photo and spitting out a probability. Its no less creepy than originally taking the photo, and postprocessing it, and categorizing it in your photos app.

If any kind of metrics leave the phone's chassis as a result, then its quite creepy, but I was operating under the assumption that they are not.

There is a problem out there of unsolicited nudes; I can see this being welcome capability for a lot of people [0]. It doesn't nudge up against any privacy issues. Seems like a good idea overall.

Of course, there is also a real issue with the fact that, as closed source software on a locked down platform, we can't know what happens next. But that is just part of the deal with iPhones; there is already a lot of data like that (eg, I'd expect the US uses iPhone GPS data froom targets to hunt them down).

[0] Not sure what the feature actually does because nobody has posted details here, so there is some guesswork here.

But photos.app scanning for kittens on device is not creepy somehow? Interesting.
Computers do a lot of if-then.

If it detects cat pictures, what evil thing is it going to do? Label it as a photo of a pet (I don't even know, I don't use a scanning phone)?

If it detects nudity, what kind of unwanted behavior might it exhibit then, report to legal guardians? Not the picture itself but even just that the device is being used for that.

I can see how this scanning+warning is more creepy than scanning+labeling cat pictures, even if the information screen tells you it was just used for this warning screen.

Your issue is of trust.

Do you use an Apple device? I can see why non-Apple users lack trust.

Apple would be eviscerated if they were doing more than they claimed.

Other devices makers are excused for poor behavior. Often with the tech-bro response that is some flavor of "install a custom OS, bro!"

Not only trust, also just knowing what the system does above board. The documentation can say exactly what it does, but who reads that? At least not until they get a "hey that's an interesting pic you took there" pop up
I'd also be creeped out, but honestly it's not bad to be a bit paranoid about who can see what you're currently sending onto the internet and double checking that things are as they should