So many people don't realize that your phone is completely blind to the matching. There's no way for your phone to know if a match has been found or not, it's only until the file is uploaded to the server that a match can be identified. This makes the system even more private. Apple DOESN'T want to know what your photos look like, they ONLY want to know whether CSAM is being copied to their servers or not.
Then let them scan their servers. Why do they need to have scanning software on a phone? Why has it waited until now if this was such a concern. It’s literally not a concern that they have mentioned before. So again, why now?
Here’s the bottom line and the way I see it from a business perspective:
Look through these forums. Go back years...all the way back to the early days of icloud, macs, iphones, ipads and see the feature request people were asking/hoping for in the next version of the OS. You won’t find anyone saying “gee, I hope the next version of the OS has CSAM scanning capabilities, that’s what I’m looking for!”. So I am of the mindset that if customers aren’t asking for something, then you as a business shouldn’t be forcing it upon their phones in any way either. Instead, you should be focused on what they actually ARE asking for whether it be camera upgrades, more stable software, more storage, better keyboards in laptops...whatever.
Apple is now treating every single one of it’s icloud users as guilty until proven innocent and acting as a proxy of law enforcement. I don’t think that’s their role, and I don’t like the nanny state thing they are doing.