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How is this scenario unique to Apple but not everyone else who does scanning? e.g. Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc...

If the entity doing the scanning has a copy of the original image they can verify it is illegal before calling the police. With Apple's system they have to call the police on the basis of the image hash without verifying that anything illegal is on the phone.

You can whatsapp someone an innocent image doctored to have a hash collision with known CSAM. If they have default settings it will be saved to their photo reel, scanned by iOS and the police will be called.

Until the arresting police officer explains to them they are being arrested on suspicion of being a paedophile, they won't even know this has happened.

A low res copy is available to the reviewer on Apple's end to verify.

Apple doesn’t “call the police”, though, they contact the center for child abuse or whatever it’s called, who will then presumably verify the picture.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a “private” nonprofit created by the US government and primarily funded by the Department of Justice.

It’s not. The hacker community just never knew or cared about CSAM scanning before Apple did it.

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