Copernicron

It hasn't gotten as much coverage so far but that could very well change. A lot of people aren't happy that iMessage now has an easily exploitable backdoor built in.

> They cancelled it!

No they didn't [0]

> When reached for comment, Apple spokesperson Shane Bauer said that the company’s position hasn’t changed since September

> Crucially, Apple’s statement does not say the feature has been canceled entirely.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/15/22837631/apple-csam-dete...

> But yes, currently Apple can access all your images on the cloud, but with this change they would have been E2E encrypted, hence improving privacy.

Apple said nothing at all this would be the case. It's pure speculation from people on the internet.

> I read every paper carefully, and this was very innovative system to protect your privacy IF we compare to existing CSAM solutions

I did the same and I agree with you with one small caveat. For someone like me, who does not use iCloud or any other cloud service, on device scanning seriously compromises my privacy. I want to be clear that I am not doing anything that is currently illegal in my home country, but that could change under a more oppressive government. I know my opinions would definitely get me in trouble in some countries if I happened to live there.

> Of course the best option is to not scan at all, but that is not really option.

Why isn't it an option? I know of no legal requirement anywhere that mandates Apple has to scan fro CSAM.

> It only applies when you have iCloud Photo Library enabled.

For now. There are no technical limitations to Apple's proposed solution that preclude it from being always on. It's a policy decision only, and you can be sure there would be immediate pressure to force it to scan full time.

You're forgetting the last option, which myself and others use:

d) encrypted offline backups that never touch iCloud

I don't use iCloud for anything at all. Any sort of client-side scanner seriously compromises my privacy for no good reason. I am not a criminal. I don't deserve to be treated like one.

Are tornadoes a common occurrence in December? We don't get them where I'm from and I can't remember hearing about anything like this before.

My heart goes out to the families of those involved. This would be devastating at the best of times.

> Man that took some explaining.

Well, you see son, when a mommy and a daddy and a daddy and a daddy…

I've been saying this for a while now. Apple is no better than Google from a privacy/advertising perspective. They just have better marketing. I admit I bought into their privacy claims but they overplayed their hand with the CSAM scanning announcement. I used to be willing to pay the Apple premium in order to get superior privacy but since the truth has come they've really lost the value proposition.

> Google Play, YouTube, Google Books, Google Maps, Google Hangouts, Google Messenger, Google Drive, Google Mail, etc are all extremely intrusive apps.

With the exception of Google Play, you can delete all of them without issue. If you don't use them, then delete them.

> At least with Apple, you have the flexibility to do whatever you want with it and not have to worry about feeding the Google Advertising machine.

No, you're feeding the Apple advertising machine instead. It's not a coincidence that Apple's share of certain advertisements has tripled since they announced app tracking transparency [0]. I'm certain it's only a matter of time before they make themselves the only company that can advertise to iOS users. Apple collects the exact same data about you that Google does only they're less transparent about it.

[0] https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/18/apples-ad-business-windfall/

I used to spend a lot of time in the forums back when android was new and I was flashing custom ROMs every other day. I haven't felt the need to do that in years though. I remember the front page having more substantive content though.

I'm just trying to use my phone. Apple Music wants me to subscribe to their streaming service. Apple Podcasts wants me to sign up for their premium offering. Apple News keeps telling me that the article I want to read is for subscribers only. It got to the point that I deleted them all so they'd leave me alone.

I have a seemingly permanent notification for the settings app to, "finish setting up your iPhone."

All I have to do is punch in my credit card number and sign up for Apple Pay. I don't want that.

That may have been true at one point but not anymore. My iPhone - which I'm typing this on - is constantly trying to get me to sign up for iCloud or Apple Pay or Apple Music or some other damn thing I don't want. The way I see it, Apple is trying to manipulate me as much as Google is and for the exact same reason: money. They want to make more money off me and if that means advertising to me in the settings menu then that's what they'll do.

For a technically focused site they sure do present an awful lot of misinformation. Android may have more malware hiding in apps but that's not the same as claiming iOS is more secure. Some security researchers have stated that Android is actually more secure than iOS and the fragmented nature of the ecosystem is actually something of a benefit at times. Android isn't being hit with something like Pegasus.

The privacy claims are laughable. As we've seen recently Apple and Google are collecting virtually identical data on you but only Google is open and transparent about both the collection and the use. Apple likes to be secret about everything. The upcoming CSAM scanning is going against everything Apple has claimed to be about for the past ten years. The way I see it they're both equal these days but at least Google is open about it.

Lest anyone claim I'm some Android fanboy defending my platform of choice, I've been using both side by side for years. I'm well aware of their strengths and weaknesses and Apple's claims of being the most secure and private OS have been shown to be nothing but marketing fluff as of late.

I do agree with the premise of the article. iOS is still what I recommend to non-technical people who want something that's going to mostly stay out of the way and mostly stay the same over time. It's still the best option for long term and third party support.

A great many people have attempted to explain why they are against this particular mechanism for detecting CSAM. I agree with you that Apple's implementation is technically impressive and probably the most private way to performing this action on device. However, I disagree that it's more private than the current cloud scanning. If the scanning happens client-side, then I have absolutely no control over what gets scanned and when. If the scanning is server-side, then I can simply not upload anything to the cloud and no scanning happens. I can't avoid client-side scanning like I can avoid server-side scanning.

I realize this is a simplification of the actual method Apple has implemented and as it currently stands it would only scan photos that are destined to be uploaded to the cloud. If it were guaranteed that would never change then I think a lot more people wouldn't have a problem with it. But it will be abused. Every[1] single[2] time[3] this sort of system is implemented "for the children" it gets abused. The slippery slope here is real and well-demonstrated in various countries around the world.

For my part I have come across an imperfect analogy that I feel accurately captures how I feel about Apple's solution. My phone is like my diary. There's nothing illegal in there. But there is stuff that is deeply personal, private, and even some that would be terribly embarrassing if the wrong person saw it. As long as I keep my diary to myself and don't let anyone see it I have nothing to worry about. If I were to send my diary off to someone else known to read diaries then it's my own fault as much as anything else if it gets read and intimate details of my life known.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_Uni...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Austral...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Russia

Most people don't pay attention to whether or not their stuff is being scanned. Those of us who do pay attention have known for a long time that it's being scanned. Especially by Google and Facebook. Basically anyone whose business model is based off of advertising. My default assumption is anything I upload is scanned.

In what way does the OP not understand what was implemented? This gives apple the ability to monitor any file on your device. Not only that, but all we have is the government's pinky promise that the database contains only CSAM. There is no verification. How do we know that it isn't going to end up filled with gay pornography involving consenting adults when the "feature" is rolled out in Saudi Arabia?

How about a counterexample? I am a consenting adult in my thirties. I create a photo or video and send it to my partner. The algorithm flags it as CSAM when it only shows a fat bald guy. Before I know it I'm under investigation and my life is ruined because the algorithm got it wrong. Even being accused of this sort of thing is enough to destroy someone and drive them to suicide.

This is completely unacceptable. Apple is giving themselves the ability to monitor and/or censor anything you do on your phone, no matter if it's end to end encrypted or not. It's not at all a stretch to go from monitoring iMessage for CSAM to monitoring it for gay pornography or any pornography at all. Or monitoring for anti-government sentiments.

Sure, they're only scanning for images right now. But there's nothing stopping them from scanning for other things, like Mein Kampf or the writings of Karl Marx. Or some other author who suddenly finds themselves unpopular with the government of the day.

Windows 10 is still going to be supported until 2025. That's a full ten years after it's initial release. How much longer do you think Apple is going to support Intel Macs now that they're releasing them with ARM chips? I had a Core 2 Duo Macbook once upon a time that got left in the dust less than five years after it was released because Apple didn't feel like supporting it anymore.

That's what I'll likely end up doing with my desktop. Not immediately, but in a couple years when Windows 10 is EOL. Microsoft is worlds better than Apple when it comes to supporting older hardware/software but this is still unacceptable. New machines are better but the improvement is much more incremental than it used to be.

This is bullshit. I have a custom gaming desktop with an i7-6700k. It's still a very powerful system that can play AAA games on high or ultra settings. There's no good reason to drop support other than forcing people to upgrade.

360 peer reviews are such bullshit. I've seen it happen where strong developers on a team of strong developers stagnate at the same level for years while mediocre developers surrounded by terrible developers get promoted. It all comes down to who's evaluating you and who you're in good with. It has nothing at all to do with how good you actually are.

I feel the same about bitcoin sometimes. I heard about it on /. when it first came out. If I'd gotten into mining in the early days I'd be rich by now. Assuming, of course, that I still had my wallet and everything.

I'm seeing this with my current employer. I'm helping out the hiring manager with interviews and technical assessment. He's trying to target people who will stay with the company for 8-10 years. It's ridiculous. (Almost) no one does that. Especially when you can make a whole lot more by changing jobs regularly.

Personally, I don't care about working on cool technology. I care about getting paid. I can't afford to buy an absurdly overpriced house without getting paid.

Exactly. I'm happy where I am but I've currently got companies willing to increase my salary by 2-3x if I leave my current employer. I'm totally going to use that as leverage in negotiations for a raise. I'm due for one.

Even a lot of amateur workflows are difficult to impossible on the iPad. I'm an amateur photographer and after using the iPad Pro as my primary editing computer for months I gave up and went back to Windows. I wanted to make it work. I really did. The file system makes the workflow incredibly painful, my preferred RAW converter isn't available, and the Adobe apps that are available are sorely lacking compared to the desktop versions. I have a couple hundred dollars worth of Photoshop plug-ins and none of them work on the iPad. There isn't even a way to load plug-ins on iPad. I can't print at all (yes, some of us still like to print). Backups can't be automated. Internal storage is very limited and external drives are painful to use. There's simply no way to tell when the iPad is accessing the external drive or not. I have had to perform multiple filesystem repairs because of that.

The iPad has some definite advantages. Battery life is great, performance is great, the screen is amazing, but it's all severely crippled by the software. Until Apple makes the OS as powerful as MacOS there is no point at all in having so much power that you simply can't use.

It may sound crazy but I’ve seen something similar happen at a startup I used to work at. The founders (Muslim) very clearly preferred to hire people of similar backgrounds. All their recruiting efforts were focused on Muslims and they went so far as to hire clearly incompetent developers over much more qualified applicants simply because they were Muslim. I’m talking about hiring someone fresh out of school vs someone with years of experience simply because the new grad was Muslim. One guy on my team dared to speak up about it and was accused of being racist. He had to do cultural sensitivity training as a result.

I'm with you. I may be an introvert but I'm actually quite social. The key for me is that I'm social on my own terms. Mandatory fun events and forced team bonding do nothing but alienate me from everyone else. The harder my manager tries to force me to be friends with my colleagues the more I refuse to.