No, it scans photos for arbitray (fancy) hashes, and Apple chooses to limit it to CSAM images. Nothing about the tech prevents it from being expanded to other kinds of images. And from what I understand, nothing prevents it from being expanded to other filetypes either, does it?
The only thing that ties this tech to CSAM images is Apples promise (and claim) to keep the scope limited.
Do I? Can you elaborate? Do you notice a difference between a company (potentially) doing this behind closed doors and as quietly as possible and doing this in a public official way?
What if I tell you I don't use any of the operating systems you listed? Does your answer change?
I have a question: Would you welcome such a move? Do you believe that taking things a bit further would be nice because "we might catch a few criminals"?
And if you are assuming Apple can't be trusted when they say they won't expand this to non-CSAM use cases then not sure why you would then trust Microsoft, Ubuntu etc.
This implies that trust is always the same and that if you trust one entity (because you did not event limit your answer to corporations) you are supposed to trust everyone and if that is not the case then you have some kind of logical error in your thinking. It also implies that losing the trust in one entity, but not some other, doesn't make sense somehow.
Also, I think the outcry would be larger if they did it from scratch compared to if they did it as an extension to some existing, known capability. If that's the case, they'd have less to lose in doing such a thing if the base system is already in place.
No, the GP was correct. As soon as any closed-source software implements automatic software updates, you've always one malicious update away from the system betraying you. Having "a system in place" for doing potentially evil things is unnecessary. Interim steps of any kind are unnecessary.
What Apple has done this week doesn't bring the iPhone closer or further to your hypothetical dystopia than it already was. Or Chrome, or Windows, or Android, etc. They update themselves. Every update your devices have done in the past decade could have betrayed you.
Anything that automatically updates is always one step away.
You're talking about "installing" a change, and talking about more about their capability to change what happens with your data.
I'm talking about 1) the effort required to _write_ the change and -- more importantly -- 2) the potential backlash being different as to whether it's a modification of an existing functionality vs an entirely new type of functionality. This second point is a major one, because it would be seen as much worse if it looks to the public like they've gone out of their way to do something wrong, and would be much more damaging to their reputation. IMO anyway.
https://pingthread.com/thread/1424873629003702273
> For the conspiracy to work, it'd need Apple, NCMEC and DOJ working together to pull it off voluntarily and it to never leak. If that's your threat model, OK, but that's a huge conspiracy with enormous risk to all participants
Apple could intercept hashes that are sent and compare to their own database.
Someone in the NCMEC could add non CSAM hashes to their database.
If you think Apple is on a slippery slope and will just expand this feature without any consideration then why have an issue now ?
Apple already has your unencrypted photos. They could scan it server-side. Or they scan it on your device and simply not tell you. And they can push OS updates without you knowing to enable all of this.
Apple could even push CSAM to your phone and frame you if they wanted to. They control ALL of the keys to your device whilst you are using iCloud and allowing software updates.
They will be forced to detect rafts of totally unrelated content, ranging from king photos in Thailand to Winnie the Pooh in China. This is going to happen.
You need to put away your “protect the children” pearls and realize wtf game they are playing here. It’s always about protecting the children, and folks fall for it every time.