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Comment by brookst | Hacker News Reader

Wait, what? Client-side scanning is offensive and objectionable, but it has much less potential for abuse. None of us have any idea if and how cloud scanning responds to ad hoc requests from anyone.

As much as I oppose client-side scanning, having a single global hash database makes it much harder for a company to do special favors without anyone knowing.

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Well, no one has any idea of how ad hoc requests are made to turn on your phone when it's off. Logically, if someone's intentionally turned off their phone they desire it to be off.

You're going to be really unhappy when you hear about IME and PSP.

Or, on the topic of cell phones: baseband firmware.

It's really surprising how people end up making absolutist claims about privacy while demonstrating very little understanding of the threat model posed by modern smartphones.

> It's really surprising how people end up making absolutist claims about privacy while demonstrating very little understanding of the threat model posed by modern smartphones.

Would you mind expanding upon that?

Consider it this way: your smartphone is an advanced collection of multiple, highly sensitive microphones, cameras, location sensors, accelerometers, etc.

The fact that you have a phone in and of itself is traceable, as cell phone towers maintain records of who, when, and where. At this point, usage of such records is so commonplace by LEO that not having your phone with you when you do something is considered suspicious in and of itself.

Applies to all phones, dumb or not: law enforcement sends you a SMS that must never be shown to the user. It answers with data that leads to your precise location. Has been there since forever.

Advocating against Apple force-updating a phone that you haven't bought seems... silly in comparison? Especially as only with an up to date OS, you can be sort of safe against attackers, be it state level sponsored or regular ones.

If it's actually SMS it wouldn't work in the USA on a phone that doesn't support SMS over LTE (3G shutdown). Such a phone is quite usable with data only.

Does that apply when your phone is off?

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