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400

macrumors 6502a
Sep 12, 2015
760
319
Wales
If on-device policing is the best option going forward, then we are already living in a dystopian society. In a world where the majority is ok with this kind of functionality, discussions about privacy and personal freedom becomes pointless.
As I understand it, they are using a clever way to make sure you are not impinging on someone else's privacy in a particularly insidious and nasty way, but using the least intrusive into your domain and in a way protecting themselves.

Back to the T+C. Don't like it, walk away or disable the function.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
At this point, nobody else does on-device scanning.




If on-device policing is the best option going forward, then we are already living in a dystopian society. In a world where the majority is ok with this kind of functionality, discussions about privacy and personal freedom becomes pointless.



That’s a dangerous way of looking at it. Most folks are careless, they will buy any kind of crap if the wrapper is shiny enough. Legislations and customer protection groups are what is supposed to prevent such situations but the system is simply not working.

I fear that after some initial outrage people will calm down and the protests will die out. Google and Microsoft will implement similar systems next, and users will follow out of convenience. Linux community will resist but Linux is practically unusable as a desktop system, so nobody will really care. And within a couple of years, we will live in a total surveillance society, where our own phones are spying on us.

The real danger is lack of functional legislation and proper law enforcement mechanisms. Apples technological platform is sound and well implemented. It’s much more sophisticated than other systems and it does put user privacy in foreground. Unfortunately, Apple seems to be completely oblivious to the social aspect of the problem - imperfect data sources, flawed legal system, dehumanized law enforcement and of course, nefarious actors that will find a way to use these systems to their advantage. Forget ransomware, now you have to fear receiving manipulated images f cats that will get yiu flagged as a sex offender to a system that does not give a damn about you as an individual. Read about folks who had their bank accounts locked because they share the same name as some criminal. That’s how well the system works.
Honestly at this point, all political stuff regarding privacy is pointless since we as a society have successfully converged into that one singular outcome that certain countries achieved decades ago.

Most people will ignore the warning of real danger just like rest of those warnings and most parents will rejoice without understanding the underlying of machine learning anyways. Our society has tried and failed again and again to understand this fundamental thing: every coin has two sides. There is never an absolute right or wrong no matter how you spin it. CSAM will never truly be eliminated, nor pedophiles, nor any other type of crime. Apple’s action, as well as all other companies, are heading towards a dangerous utopia that they might eventually regret when it is too late to back off and escape.
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
16,263
11,764
As I understand it, they are using a clever way to make sure you are not impinging on someone else's privacy in a particularly insidious and nasty way, but using the least intrusive into your domain and in a way protecting themselves.

Back to the T+C. Don't like it, walk away or disable the function.
Good to see you already picked the side. Hope you will enjoy it.
 

Khedron

Suspended
Sep 27, 2013
2,561
5,755
As I understand it, they are using a clever way to make sure you are not impinging on someone else's privacy in a particularly insidious and nasty way, but using the least intrusive into your domain and in a way protecting themselves.

Back to the T+C. Don't like it, walk away or disable the function.

Apple didn’t care about CSAM scanning on their own servers like other companies have already been doing. Now they’ve found a way to shift the costs onto the user they’ve decided it’s time to act.
 

Natrium

macrumors regular
Aug 7, 2021
125
246
As I understand it, they are using a clever way to make sure you are not impinging on someone else's privacy in a particularly insidious and nasty way, but using the least intrusive into your domain and in a way protecting themselves.

Back to the T+C. Don't like it, walk away or disable the function.
Telling people to “walk away” is not an argument nor realistic. People depend on their iPhones, iPads and Macs, have invested a lot of money in them and have been locked into the Apple ecosystem. Ironically, relying on Apple’s apparently false assurances that they respect your privacy.
 

Herb Gracey

macrumors newbie
Jun 2, 2015
3
1
There are few tech ecosystems that have absolute privacy. If you think it is the beginning of a "slippery slope" for Apple, you are naive about how much privacy you can count on, especially in areas that involve probable or marginally illegal activity.
 
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pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,151
14,574
New Hampshire
There are few tech ecosystems that have absolute privacy. If you think it is the beginning of a "slippery slope" for Apple, you are naive about how much privacy you can count on, especially in areas that involve probable or marginally illegal activity.

The thing to do is to avoid illegal activity.

But then there is the category of actions similar to SWATTING or IP or phone spoofing. The latter happens to me on a daily basis where someone spoofs a local phone number to call me to get me to pick up to do some marketing or tell me that my car warranty has expired or that I owe the IRS. Interestingly, Apple has done some work to decrease the nuisance-factor of this.

People do get convicted for things that they didn't do:

 

bobcomer

macrumors 601
May 18, 2015
4,949
3,699
The thing to do is to avoid illegal activity.
Being a friend of Big Brother? That's so slippery a slope it makes me cry. You have no clue what might happen out of your control when you're talking about what can happen on your phone. I suppose that disabling the camera physically, iMessage/sms/mms, and email, you might not get framed, but even then I wouldn't bet on it anymore.
 

pshufd

macrumors G4
Oct 24, 2013
10,151
14,574
New Hampshire
Being a friend of Big Brother? That's so slippery a slope it makes me cry. You have no clue what might happen out of your control when you're talking about what can happen on your phone. I suppose that disabling the camera physically, iMessage/sms/mms, and email, you might not get framed, but even then I wouldn't bet on it anymore.

I directly addressed that in my post.
 

Mr Screech

macrumors 6502
Mar 2, 2018
260
264
When governments or by proxy, companies, use the terrorism or childporn catch-phrase to erode some of your freedoms or institute extra surveillance, eventually they're going to use it for anything they'd like. You should not think lightly about the consequences. It's sad that many don't bat an eye and agree with the surveillance. The "I've got nothing to hide"-mantra stems from pure ignorance.
 

Serban55

Suspended
Oct 18, 2020
2,153
4,344
in 10 years the authorities and tech companies, will probably tell you how to raise and what to do and not to do with children and much more
I hope the trolls will destroy the systems by a lot of false signs of course with true proof behind
 

ADGrant

macrumors 68000
Mar 26, 2018
1,689
1,059
I can tell you working in a financial institution this happens every day with your finances machines constantly scrutinize your every transaction and look for certain patterns.

Mainly to prevent money laundering but if yours is flagged it does get reviewed by a compliance officer who then decides whether or not to forward that information to our government.

And no they never tell you.
Because it would be illegal for them to inform you that they had flagged your account and informed the government.
 
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liberti

macrumors newbie
Aug 7, 2021
4
4
US

Yep, it'll be included on Monterey as well.

Screw this.
I guess my pictures of my kid I took in the bathtub would qualify? So much for ICloud. Actually, he is 35 now, so those pictures aren't on the Cloud. But that actually says more about Apple's ICloud being vulnerable to hacking than anything. Nothing is safe.
My photos and video are getting taken down and so much for all the fun.
 
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Blue Quark

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2020
196
147
Probabilistic
The bottom line is it's my private property, and at least in the U.S., you don't get to step foot on, much less search, my private property without probable cause and a search warrant.

My M1 MBA was never my main computer anyhow, so all I need to do is nuke-n-pave it and sell it off.

None of these device spying things are a factor in Linux. It's actually a pretty darned good argument for people to switch to libre-licensed, open source software entirely.

You'll never see me make this kind of misjudgement again.
 
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Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,248
13,323
Cyanite posted:
"If you don’t trust Apple, why would you use their devices and services?"

I've been a Mac user for 34 years now.

But...
I don't use iCloud.
I've never used the cloud.
I never will use the cloud.
I've never trusted it before, don't trust it now, and won't trust it in the future.

Actually, the only Apple products I use are Macs.
No iPhones.
No iPads.
No "anything else"...

Look at the avatar.
I really am "a troglodyte"...
(don't even own a smartphone of any kind...)
 

hagar

macrumors 68020
Jan 19, 2008
2,128
5,417
Why does everyone think Apple backtracked on their privacy policies???

they could have easily implemented this server-side like other companies and nobody would have been none the wiser.

but they deliberately do it on device so nobody, including Apple, has access to your stuff. It’s well within their rights to not want millions of CSAM pics on their servers so it’s great for them to have implemented a privacy-oriented solution where no one can access your data, but still be able to suspend certain accounts.
 
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