Apple is only checking images you choose to upload to iCloud photos to see if you are uploading a collection of CSAM. This is entirely optional, and they have publicly explained what they are doing.
They are not sniffing through your communications as they see fit.
Take traditional mail. That is not opened, it is, usually, not read. Nor is content checked. It can, and is, opened in case of warrants (let's ignore totalitarian regimes here). What Google is doing when it comes to photos, as was Apple before, is opening every envelope containing photos to check wether or not it was CP. Already bad enough because they still opened your mail. You could avoid that by just using another mail carrier, so.
What Apple is doing now is checking you photos before you put them in the envelope. In case they find too many stuff they don't like they open all your other photo albums. And they tell authorities. Without any means for you to prevent that. It's like the postal service looking at your mail before they pick it up.
All that without oversight by courts. Without proper legal and investigative proceedings. Heck, even without any law, currently, forcing them to do that.
The more recent incidents where that or similar things happened were:
- the USSR
- the DDR with the Stasi
- Nazi Germany
- Western allies during WW2 through dedicated censorship bureaus
All of those were historically deemed unacceptable, maybe necessary for the greater good so. Now a private entity, with a global reach, does the same thing in principle. Even with the technical capabilities to do it on a much larger scale, and more thoroughly. And because of Apple being private is, for some reason, ok for you.
Not sure if further discussion woth you has a point, I'll just leave it at that.
Ad hominem is bad faith. It’s usually a sign that you know your arguments don’t hold up.
> What Apple is doing now is checking you photos before you put them in the envelope.
No, an ‘envelope’ is a totally misleading analogy. This has nothing to do with sending messages.
If you want an analogy try this one: Apple provides a warehouse for people who want to store copies of their precious photos. They give you a copier to make copies of your photos, you give them the copies, and they file them.
Because they don’t want a vault full of child porn, then equip the copier with a scanner to detect known child porn while it makes the copy.
That is all that is happening here. No sniffing through communications as they see fit, only a way to prevent you from uploading child porn to their service.
Anyone saying otherwise simply isn’t being truthful.
