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Comment by rjzzleep | Hacker News Reader

I was actually looking to buy the new iPhone should they add back TouchID, but this has been quite the turnoff.

Are Pixel phones the only android phones that allow you to do secure boot with non stock images and basically long term cripple phone functionality once its unlocked?

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Google does the same with Google Drive. Apple is just late for the party.

Apple does the same with iCloud as Google does with Google Drive.

Apple just now moved it to scan on the device.

Correct. https://9to5mac.com/2020/02/11/child-abuse-images/

And if you have your iCloud sync toggle on, since your devices are intended to be uploaded, the client is doing the hashing.

This is different now. They scanned only suspected ones. Now they are expanding it to every user. To avoid same privacy issues as Google is doing (scan everything on cloud), they scan everything on device, and only leaking suspected information to upstream and preventing the upload to stop sharing.

IF we can trust that they really scan locally only those files which would end up into the cloud, then this is improvement. But trust is all we have, because the system is already full blackbox.

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

Disingenuous false equivalence for anyone who knows the difference between server side and client side

Isn't it bit ironical or naive to trust their current software as it is (which is almost full blackbox), and then speculate what they could do without saying, when they add something?

As far as I understand, you can disable this feature, because it is tied to iCloud sync. Based on their spec [1], this feature avoids to do the same as Google and others doing (scan everything on cloud), instead they scan on device, which limits exposed data what Apple sees. So this is improvement compared to other available solutions.

[1] https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/Expanded_Protections_...

Exactly. Many people who are upset about having their images scanned before going to iCloud don't seem to realize all the big providers (Apple, Google, FB, Twitter, MS, etc...) have been scanning images with CSAM for years already.

The client side/server side also does not matter because iOS users have had to trust Apple implicitly since day 1. All the 'what ifs' existed whether or not Apple added this feature.

I speculate that Apple is going to announce an expansion of E2E to more services at the iPhone event this year, and this feature is getting in front of political complaints that could lead to real privacy destroying legislation/LEO complaints.

This makes the most sense for “why” and “why now” IMO.

and Microsoft since 2009:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/photodna

Which, in turn, is used by FaceBook, Twitter, etc.

Fairphone allows re-locking the bootloader with the /e/ rom flashed.

The annoying thing about unlocking or relocking the bootloader is that it wipes your phone. Unless you're paranoid that someone can give you a rootkit while you're not looking, as long as you use full device encryption then leaving the bootloader unlocked isn't too bad. Plus, it lets you upgrade your bootloader and OS later. I stupidly relocked the bootloader after installing LineageOS and now I can't upgrade the OS major version without wiping everything.

I'm in the same boat with my Fairphone and /e/. ;)

For me, re-flashing wouldn't even be that much of a hassle since I have contacts and all in my Nextcloud instance and would only have to make a backup of Signal (I barely use my phone - about 2-3 hours total per month), but I just can't get myself to do it.

Should have sticked with my trusted ol' Nokia 3110c I used for a good 13 years, but alas I sent that in to Fairphone for recycling after I bought my Fairphone 3 last year (which I only bought in the first place because finding CNG gas stations is such a hassle here in Germany).

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