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Comment by new299 | Hacker News Reader

What confuses me is the requirement for this capability. The technology is only used on photos that are being uploaded to iCloud.

Apple can decrypt data on iCloud, so why not just do this offline? Doesn't make much sense.

It makes me think that the technology will be expanded to encompass all offline images at some point.

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Is it? The article I read about it said it also includes photos saved on your iphone, even if they aren't uploaded to icloud.

Apple have a fairly detailed page on the approach including independent evaluations. Which states that it’s only for iCloud. But there’s no reason why this couldn’t change in the future.

https://www.apple.com/child-safety/

On face value alone that should reassure sceptics that this new scanner will only be used for good purposes.

However there is a very long list of companies not just doing things for good, but also for profit.

And when profit enters the equation, then the original mission statement tends to get distorted into something bad/worse.

Of course Apple is free to decide, but the consumer has the option to either loudly disagree or exit the Apple ecosystem altogether.

The thing is, that it's as always - anyone arguing against this system will be branded as a pedophile sympathiser.

Well, simple minded people will always try to use that rhetoric.

I see the same pattern with pro-vaccine and "anti-vax", either you support vaccines or you are labeled "anti-vax", all is black-and-white without any nuances.

That sort of discussion rarely leads to any productive outcome.

From what I read it works for on your phone so it's off-line but only when iCloud photos is enabled.

The fact that they've decided to move this processing from their servers to the local device means they 100% intend to scan all of your photos and not only those that you upload to iCloud in the future.

I don't think they do. I also don't think they can easily decrypt icloud as you're making it out to be.

However... yeah. This is a massive breach of trust. Having any spyware agent on my device is disgusting. I can't imagine the abuse cases this sort of thing can be used for.

> I also don't think they can easily decrypt icloud as you're making it out to be.