My sense is Apple is trying to keep CASM off their servers. Scanning phones before it gets there was their solution to what I assume is a government demand/ultimatum. “Do this or we repatriate your foreign entity taxes” or some other shit.

I too feel that Apple just caved and eroded trust that took decades to build up. The only way this gets sorted is the “screeching minority” continues to screech and brings other in. Notify state attorneys general, FTC, etc. will that do anything? Who know? My bet is that it’s the DOJ behind all of this.

Hopefully the plaintiff bar which are already preparing class action lawsuits will find a way to get documents in discovery that allude to government coercion. But then again I’m sure there would be a clever way those are not produced under some “national security” bullbaiting reason.

All we can do is try, and keep the pressure on.