But the fact that my iOS device can potentially report me to any authorities, for whatever reason, is crossing a line that makes it impossible to ever own an iPhone again. I bought my first one in 2007 so I'm not saying this lightly..
Does anybody know if this policy will extend to macOS too?
Not to be, uh, flippant. Because this feels like a rather obvious slippery slope that Google will be compelled to slide down as well.
Feels like the only way to avoid such a thing would be dumb phone + Linux laptop/desktop.
Plan to get one as my next phone, although it should be said that both of these offerings are still a bit rough around the edges currently, but getting there
If anyone in my circle of family, friends, and social network asks my advice, the formerly easy answer "Get a Mac, get an iPhone; you won't regret it!" is probably going to be replaced with something more nuanced ("Buy Apple, but know what you're getting into; here's a few articles on privacy....").
If it does come to macOS it will be part of Photos.app, as that's the only way to interact with iCloud Photos. I would recommend you to avoid that app and cloud in general if you care about privacy.
[1] https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/CSAM_Detection_Techni...
- Communication safety in Messages
[…] This feature is coming in an update later this year to accounts set up as families in iCloud for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS Monterey.*
- CSAM detection
[…] To help address this, new technology in iOS and iPadOS will allow Apple to detect known CSAM images stored in iCloud Photos.
- Expanding guidance in Siri and Search
[…] These updates to Siri and Search are coming later this year in an update to iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and macOS Monterey.
I don't see how it could be in the same way, or at least it only could be on brand new ARM Macs right? The thing is that at least on Intel Macs Apple simply doesn't control the whole stack. I mean, obviously, while more effort it's perfectly possible to get x86 macOS running virtualized or directly on non-Apple hardware entirely. So any shenanigans they try to pull there can get subverted or outright patched out. Without the whole hardware trust chain and heavy lock down like they have on iOS this sort of effort, even if attempted, becomes less threatening. I guess we'll see what they go for though :(. They could certainly make it pretty nasty anyway so as much as anything it's more of a forlorn hope they'll mainly focus on low hanging fruit.