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Comment by hef19898 | Hacker News Reader

hef19898

Nice. Well, Apple had me consider a switch from Pixel phones when they prioritized privacy over Facebook. Since I don't want anyone scanning and deeming my pictures "acceptable" I just stick with Google. And they were that close to become an acceptable big tech co regarding user privacy...

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> Since I don't want anyone scanning and deeming my pictures "acceptable" I just stick with Google.

Don't Google already do this for images you store in their cloud?

   yes.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2014/8/5/5970141/how-google-scans-y...

[1] https://torrentfreak.com/google-drive-uses-hash-matching-det...

Sure, but so does icloud and onedrive. And while i don't like that either, at least one can opt out of it. The only way to realistically opt out of this new system is to not use an iOS device. And i'm just wondering how long until they want to scan your mac as well.

> The only way to realistically opt out of this new system is to not use an iOS device.

You can just not share the photos to iCloud, the exact same way you'd opt out of it happening on iCloud, no?

I suppose you are right about that actually. Makes me wonder why they chose to implement scanning of files destined for icloud (locally) when it's already a feature of icloud?

Scratch that. I think i get it now. They now have that capability BUILT IN locally, which might mean it can possibly be used via remote command on-demand (on for example non icloud pictures). Which is kind of scary.

That's why I hardly have any pictures there. Except stuff I share spontaneously. The vast majority is on local drives. I guess I'll have to do that in general going forward then...

EDIT: Just checked, I don't backup pictures from my phone in the cloud. At least that's what my Google camera app insists on.

So if those things are equal you’re going to switch to an iPhone then?

One of them is scanning on device. The other isn't.

> One of them is scanning on device [...]

                                 [...] when the photo is about to be uploaded to the cloud.  If you don't use iCloud Photos, it won't be scanning your photos.

> about to be uploaded to the cloud

it's scanning ON your device. This means Apple now has the capability to scan and find files on your device. Which means they have opened the pandoras box of over-reaching government requests.

Same here. Despite the atrocious UI of iOS, I've been slowly and reluctantly considering iPhone for my next phone because of the good privacy news. This news kills any consideration of an iPhone for me. I'd rather go back to a dumb phone than let a company scan my phone at will.

I'm currently considering a Pixel phone with CalyxOS. It might be the good in-between choice.

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