> "
Do you understand how it's different when it's on their servers vs having the functionality to scan for anything they want on your phone?"
It's this kind of casual fearmongering which stops people from accurately understanding.
What makes you think Apple doesn't already have the functionality to scan for anything they want on your phone, given that they built a phone content scanner a decade ago for the iTunes Match service and a photo tagger and analyser which does run on the phone, and they control everything about the software?
What makes you think Google doesn't have the functionality to scan for anything they want on your phone, or couldn't add it if they wanted to? Have you the source code for the Google Play services? The internal chip firmwares? Have you studied Google's terms and conditions in enough detail to be certain they can't move any such checks client side without telling you? And they also do analyse photos on-device and tag their content for normal use.
Why do you trust that Google isn't doing anything snitchy or on behalf of the authorities, but when Apple announces that they won't and designs a system which makes it hard for them to do that, then you assume they will? Not even quietly cynically suspect that they might, but spreading as a fact that they definitely will.
