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Comment by simondotau | Hacker News Reader

But someone has to write code to hold multiple sets of hashes. And someone has to write the code which treats reports differently. It all has to be written and maintained. Thus developers at Apple will still know that the system is being used for something other than CSAM.

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> developers at Apple will still know that the system is being used for something other than CSAM.

Will the next generation's developers call them out for that? Or will they be given justification to accept it?

We're inching towards 1984 with these big tech monopolies. It was one thing for Snowden to reveal the secret agreements the government imposes upon tech companies. It's entirely another for privately run businesses to capitulate, and thus excuse politicians from needing to make intelligence-gathering a public issue.

Whatever backroom discussions are occuring about this topic need to come into public view. This just doesn't make sense on the surface. The government can't have access to secretly monitor everything on the internet. It's too much power for too few, ripe for abuse by bad actors, etc. There must be another way that involves an informed citizenry. I don't care how uninformed we've shown ourselves to be in the last decade. We should press forward on informing regardless.

Is the hash matching being done on device or off device?

Up thread it was said that the device will hash the picture then send hash off for matching.

If that is a case, then the hashes coming off your device can be intercepted and checked vs other databases.

Hashing is done on device, matching is also done on device. In the event of a match, a "safety voucher" is generated and uploaded to iCloud. Multiple safety vouchers are required for your account to be flagged, at which point the contents of these vouchers (which contains metadata and a grayscale thumbnail of the photo) can be viewed by Apple.

> Multiple safety vouchers are required for your account to be flagged

I don't see how that makes any difference. What if someone plants bad data on your device? That would of course be a concern for cloud-scanning too.

I don't care how secure Apple says their devices are. There are companies that can crack them, and you can bet some unscrupulous people will use that against their opponents. Politicians and other influential people should be as concerned about this as everyone else. Didn't Saudis crack Bezos' phone to reveal his affair? With this tech they could make up worse stories. I believe our justice department could tell the difference between a hack and someone who actually harbors bad data most of the time, but I don't like relying on that.

> What if

Given that a functionally identical system has been implemented by Google for years, we should already know what will happen. So let me ask. Is this already happening to people with Android devices? In terms of opportunities for framing someone, how is what Google does any different?

Google's system doesn't do on-device scanning, and I gave an example above of something like this happening. Security is a constant race between good and bad actors. If you weaken your system you're scoring for the other team.

Not to worry that is just the "terrorist" hashes

If the human reviewer doesn't see a photograph of a sex act with a prepubescent (NCMEC classification "A1") then it will be rejected.

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