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Wouldn't it be more likely that medianalysisd (which is present in macOS since many years) does something like object recognition [1] and connects to Apple servers for updating the model or telemetry or something similar?

[1] https://eclecticlight.co/2022/03/23/how-visual-look-up-works...

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If indeed it does that, then the title is correct: Apple has begun scanning your local image files without consent. I don't think any reasonable person would expect the OS to do this if you don't use the Apple apps to manage or search images, and have opted out of all analytics and such.

This could also have something to do with the new feature to detect duplicate photos (added in macOS Ventura) [0]

0: https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/remove-duplicates-pht...

I’d be interested to see whether this is checking more than hashes.

Hashing can be done locally.

I am increasingly weary of my employer providing me with a device that I need to have on me at all times at home and that is doing all of these outbound connections.

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