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Apple wants to check your phone for child abuse images – what could possibly go wrong?
The Guardian ^ | Sat 7 Aug 2021 | Arwa Mahdawi

Posted on 08/07/2021 12:40:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin

On the surface Apple’s new features sound both sensible and commendable – but they also open a Pandora’s box of privacy and surveillance issues.

Don’t worry, the tech company has assured everyone, the prying is for purely benevolent purposes. On Thursday Apple announced a new set of “protection for children” features that will look through US iPhones for images of child abuse. One of these features is a tool called neuralMatch, which will scan photo libraries to see if they contain anything that matches a database of known child abuse imagery. Another feature, which parents can enable or disable, scans iMessage images sent or received by accounts that belong to a minor. It will then notify the parents when a child receives sexually explicit imagery.

Apple’s attempts to protect children may be valiant, they also open a Pandora’s box of privacy and surveillance issues. Of particular concern to security researchers and privacy activists is the fact that this new feature doesn’t just look at images stored on the cloud; it scans users’ devices without their consent. Essentially that means there’s now a sort of “backdoor” into an individual’s iPhone, one which has the potential to grow wider and wider. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an online civil liberties advocacy group, warns that “all it would take to widen the narrow backdoor that Apple is building is an expansion of the machine learning parameters to look for additional types of content … That’s not a slippery slope; that’s a fully built system just waiting for external pressure to make the slightest change.” You can imagine, for example, how certain countries might pressure Apple to scan for anti-government messages...

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: apple; childabuse; iphone; privacy; surveillance
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1 posted on 08/07/2021 12:40:35 PM PDT by BenLurkin
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To: BenLurkin

“ it scans users’ devices without their consent. ”

They’re covered once you press the accept button during iOS install.


2 posted on 08/07/2021 12:42:40 PM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: BenLurkin

Does pedo joe have an I-phone?


3 posted on 08/07/2021 12:47:01 PM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: BenLurkin
Apple wants to check your phone for child abuse images

Probably ought to check the Qtard phones first.

They're a pretty sketchy lot.

4 posted on 08/07/2021 12:47:45 PM PDT by humblegunner
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To: BenLurkin

Put a MAGA hat on a kid and see what happens.


5 posted on 08/07/2021 12:48:54 PM PDT by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: NWFree

In the fine print does Apple still own the iPhone that customers use? Is everyone just renting them? Call me old fashioned, but I don’t think they should be allowed to search something not owned by them.


6 posted on 08/07/2021 12:49:48 PM PDT by teevolt
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To: BenLurkin

“all it would take to widen the narrow backdoor that Apple is building is an expansion of the machine learning parameters to look for additional types of content … That’s not a slippery slope; that’s a fully built system just waiting for external pressure to make the slightest change.”

Governments will exploit this capability for all manner of nefarious purposes. Scan for any image, any person, any set of words...on a billion distributed sensors.

It’s the Chinese Fascist State enabler.

To “save the children”.


7 posted on 08/07/2021 12:50:36 PM PDT by Mariner (War criminal #18)
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To: BenLurkin

Expect checking for images containing guns will be next. Or MAGA hats.


8 posted on 08/07/2021 12:51:11 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A Leftist can't enjoy life unless they are controlling, hurting, or destroying others)
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To: BenLurkin

Hunter Biden is unconcerned by this news.


9 posted on 08/07/2021 12:52:58 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (We have two Democrat parties. 50% of the US population has no political representation.)
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To: ClearCase_guy

The first person that came to mind!


10 posted on 08/07/2021 12:55:35 PM PDT by foundedonpurpose (Praise Hashem, for his restoration of all things!)
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To: BenLurkin

What they will consider “child abuse,” will be above and beyond what most people consider abuse (sexual, physical, emotional).


11 posted on 08/07/2021 1:01:53 PM PDT by PghBaldy (12/14 - 930am -rampage begins... 12/15 - 1030am - Obama's advance team scouts photo-op locations.)
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To: foundedonpurpose

The truth is that Apple is scanning photos uploaded to its cloud service for signs of child abuse images, not pictures on your phone. Its their cloud and their right do to this. Why anybody would store anything on their cloud is beyond me, but they are not scanning images on your phone.


12 posted on 08/07/2021 1:01:59 PM PDT by RBW in PA
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To: BenLurkin

Searching for child porn ON their services is fine.

I’ve got a real problem with them scanning on your phone and then notifying the police.

It’s VERY slippery slope type of stuff.

First it’s were just scanning photos on your phone before you upload them to our service looking for illicit images and notifying the police.

Then it’s - were just scanning photos on your phone for any illicit photos and notifying the police.

Then it’s were just scanning your phone for illicit files and notifying the police.

Then it’s were just scanning your computer for illicit files and notifying the police.

Stopping child abuse is good. But it opens the door for all sorts of big brother operations and 24/7 monitoring of your electronic data and I’m a hard NO on that.

That said - anything actually ON their servers is (and always was) fair game.

But this isn’t about stopping child abuse - it’s about further enacting a totalitarian state.


13 posted on 08/07/2021 1:03:29 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: teevolt

I think you own the phone. but they own the software.


14 posted on 08/07/2021 1:03:30 PM PDT by cableguymn (We need a redneck in the white house.... But the fact checkers said the story was false!)
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To: BenLurkin
I have decided at this point that I will buy a ChiCom manufactured smartphone directly from a Chinese manufacturer instead of through Apple - the reseller.

My thinking is that a smartphone that is entirely controlled by the communist Chinese will not betray my smartphone's data directly to the US government and that my data is useless to the ChiComs for spying purposes. Why pay Apple to spy on me on a iPhone that they do not make themselves?

Strange plans for strange times on Prison Planet.

15 posted on 08/07/2021 1:03:46 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck ( COVID lockdowns are the Establishment's attack on the middle class and our Republic )
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To: RBW in PA

The problem is they’re scanning on your phone before upload.

It’s a very simple code change to change that to “we’re just scanning your photos in general for illicit pictures even without uploading.”

They don’t even have to do that voluntarily - government will immediately enact laws because Apple has shown it’s not only possible but feasible.


16 posted on 08/07/2021 1:05:09 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: RBW in PA
Delete or Change Your iCloud Account on iPhone or iPad without Losing Data:

https://drfone.wondershare.com/icloud/how-to-change-or-delete-icloud-account-on-iphone-ipad-ipod.html

17 posted on 08/07/2021 1:10:13 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (Welcome to Planet Lab where are you are the rat)
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To: SauronOfMordor

or diesel pickup trucks.
large homes

it could go on and on.


18 posted on 08/07/2021 1:15:13 PM PDT by cableguymn (We need a redneck in the white house.... But the fact checkers said the story was false!)
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To: wildcard_redneck

oddly... your right.

Except I wouldn’t do any banking on it.


19 posted on 08/07/2021 1:16:31 PM PDT by cableguymn (We need a redneck in the white house.... But the fact checkers said the story was false!)
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To: wildcard_redneck

Good post!

They can still have fun with you, though. Remember when Pokémon was having people walk off of cliffs? Or, the new COVID lockdown “ping” apps will make you hide in a closet.

It’s all fair game in cyber warfare. :)


20 posted on 08/07/2021 1:16:50 PM PDT by Empire_of_Liberty
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