It is clearly a no-trivial project, no other company is doing it, and it will be one of the rare case of a company doing something not for shareholders value but for "goodwill".
I am really not understanding the reasoning behind this choice.
US law requires any ESP (electronic service provider) to alert NCMEC if they become aware of CSAM on their servers. Apple used to comply with this by scanning images on the server in iCloud photos, and now they’re moving that to the device if that image is about to be uploaded to iCloud photos.
FWIW, the NYT says Apple reported 265 cases last year to NCMEC, and say Facebook reported 20.3 million. Google [1] are on for 365,319 for July->Dec.
I’m still struggling to see what has changed here, apart from people realising what’s been happening..
- it’s the same algorithm that Apple has been using, comparing NCMEC-provided hashes against photos
- it’s still only being done on photos that are uploaded to iCloud photos
- it’s now done on-device rather than on-server, which removes a roadblock to future e2e encryption on the server.
Seems the only real difference is perception.
[1] https://transparencyreport.google.com/child-sexual-abuse-mat...
Not saying it will happen, but that's a decent theory as of why https://daringfireball.net/2021/08/apple_child_safety_initia...