They will scan them locally to provide recommendations (“memories”) but that data doesn’t leave your phone.
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Thanks for the info. I guess they’ve had access all along. Don’t know why I should be surprised. They’ve been sorting by faces for a long time now also. Microsoft and Google do it too. Do you think turning off Photo Stream would do any good? I suppose turning off icloud might help. I am just feeling disheartened about the loss of privacy that Apple has promised through the years. It has always creeped me out when I get notified that they have a memory for me to look at in my photo library.
Depends on what you are trying to do. If the CSAM scanning worries you, disabling iCloud photos will do the trick.
Yes, but that just provides tags to the photos on the device itself. It doesn’t send Apple a message, along with the photos, when you’ve received more than 30 images of your granddaughter… (We’ve received/made around 800 photos of the granddaughter so far this year.)
That is the problem bit. Adding names is for your benefit. Reporting you to the police is not for your benefit - and, while CSAM is a great cause, it is the opening of the floodgates that is the problem.
Apple have demonstrated that it can do this, so it will be pressured to do more, especially by more restrictive regimes - like Romania, which implemented anti-LGBT laws earlier this year. Any LGBT photos or chat about LGBT topics might become reportable in that country. “Update your database or your products are banned in our country!”
Romania? Okay, a small country, probably not a major profit centre for Apple, but China? Russia? Europe? Germany has twice tried to get the Staatstrojaner (State trojan) installed on all devices, but it was rejected by the constitutional court, they can now install it on devices, once they get a warrant - which I actually have no issue with, probable cause is fine for installing spyware, with a warrant, but to install it on every device? No way!
This Apple system could provide the access that they need. Again, if it means that they can get access to the device with a warrant, fine and if it doesn’t involve installing malware to do it, even better. But the risks of mass surveillance are too great.
Am I going to throw my new iPad in the bin? No. Not yet, anyway.
And I was looking at switching back to an iPhone this year, but now I’m in a wait-and-see mode.
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Unfortunate, I don’t know that the alternative is any better.
To my knowledge, Android does not actively spy on its users for the government despite the presence of privacy issues in Google’s bundled services.
Users who are extremely concerned about privacy can opt for any of several de-Googled Android builds. That comes with extra effort, of course, and may not have all the functionality some people would prefer.
Yeah, that’s the problem. A lot of the functionality and apps worth running require Google Play Services.
It’s on my to-do list to see if I lose anything I can’t live without using MicroG.
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I think that it depends on what you mean by “Android.” If by Android you mean AOSP, sure.
To my knowledge it’s still true with full-Google Android, e.g. what comes on a Pixel. It will prompt you to turn on a bunch of cloud services which might spy on you once your data is server-side, but your device won’t.
The distinction between yours and theirs is important despite increasing attempts to blur that line.
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This may be semantics. It was shown that Google was collecting location information (which requires the phone’s co-operation) even when it was told the user did not want to use location services. Google’s excuse was that they had multiple settings and that the user didn’t [manage to] disable all the ones that controlled location. (AKA blame the user.)
Google has definitely used dark patterns to try to get data users don’t want to share, especially location. It does not monitor that data for evidence the user is committing crimes and proactively report to the government (though Google has supplied location data in response to warrants and subpoenas).
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