The German government isn't complaining. Looking at the original German article it was a single parliament member from an opposition party that wrote a letter to Apple.
From the technical standpoint, Apple's implementation seems sound, although it does raise strong concerns about the future applications of the technology. Strong privacy laws can prevent abuse.
Yes, there is a need to thwart the production and distibution of child sexual abuse material. Yes, there is a need to monitor communication (following due process) to protect a democratic nation against those who want to harm it. A government in power however, will often seek to go beyond its "needs". In this particular context, they want, and demand, the right to unleash surveillance on everyone, without any due diligence or monitoring. This obviously has more to do with their desire for more power and control, than the actual needs of the nation.
While "cloud scanning" has some how been grudgingly accepted by many of us, Apple's CSAM tools go beyond that and lays the foundation for a future surveillance network that the BigTech and power-hungry governments have long been desiring. With this kind of technology (with legal backing) the BigTech get unrestrained access to our personal data that they can monetise. The governments gets the power to scan all our devices for content the government deems inappropriate (anything they deem illegal and / or that threatens their hold on power).
Apple's CSAM tools are thus a direct assualt on our rights - with it, we are no longer considered "innocent, until proven guilty". We also lose our right against self-incrimination. In a democratic setup, if a government accuses anyone, the burden of proving the accusation is on them. But if Apple's CSAM tools is extended into a surveillance network that is always monitoring for "illegal" content, the whole process will be turned around where we citizens will now have to bear the burden of always proving our innocence. Our rights, and democracy, go for a toss with this.
We should laud the politicians who bought up this issue in Germany and are defending the democratic rights and values that we all want to see prevail.
Reading through these discussions, this is the one question I haven't seen a good answer to. Would any of us be speaking out like we are right now if Apple had chosen to do server-side scanning instead of on-device scanning, just like every other company?
There are many options for personal server hosting where the hardware and software are open for reverse engineering and inspection, so you could, at least in theory, host a server you control without needing to use Apple's offering. On the other hand, smartphones are proliferated by a duopoly and there are no viable options for using one where both stacks are made completely open. No company has the capability to openly push a scanning feature like this into the Linux kernel in the same way that Apple can openly announce they're going to add their own version of such a feature to their own operating system, because the power dynamic is completely different.
It sounds like the magnitude of the backlash people are expressing can be partially explained by the fact that Apple has such a large foothold on the personal device market in a world where smartphones are increasingly becoming necessary to live one's life, and due to the inability to choose a privacy-respecting device that is also competent enough to satisfy society's new expectations for smartphone usage, there is no good place to hide.
How can one harm a stable democratic nation truth "communication"? Normally it is harmed truth news-outlets and not one to one communication.
There you go, next
Ps: sorry if I double posted. I got an error the first time around and found not see the post.
Just wait until some bought-off cronies in the EU Parliament pushes for this feature. Never forget the Article 13 events!
Since a few days, I have finished switching over from a Mac Mini (M1), iPhone and Watch to a desktop (with a proper graphics card, unlike the M1), a phone with LineageOS (and microG, so no/little Google) and an Amazfit GTR 2e watch. Apple is missing out on 3-4k in purchases from me in this year alone.
- synology nas to replace iCloud
- XPS 13 (hopefully running Linux, or at worst a heavily locked down Windows 10)
- Pixel 4 with grapheneOS
I’ll be selling my 12 Mini, M1 Mac Mini, Watch 6, and iPad; Apple services subscriptions have already been canceled. Signal seems to be a capable replacement for iMessage so far.
I was really looking forward to the fall hardware announcements, but I’m glad I found out Apple is an untrustworthy actor before I gave them any more $$$
I'm not gonna sell my iPad or anything, but I have no plans on vaulting into the walled garden now
But my personal boycotts of mainstream social media, advertising, and weaponised viral clickbait have had absolutely no effect on the general adoption of such practices.
Collective action and regulation are what is required here. Parliaments are the effective mechanism. Possibly class-action suits.
This isn't Minority Report.
If people would really care about their privacy, Facebook and Instagram wouldn't be as big as they are, nobody would use facebook messenger for communication and a lot fewer people would use Windows and Android. Despite the warning of privacy advocates, experienced users, etc, people don't seem to care and I doubt this will change with the CSAM debate.
I bought a pine phone when they announced it. Looking forward to leaning into it when it arrives.
I know there will be some pain, but I'm getting off the ride here.
