Posted on 08/09/2021 4:54:59 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Apple has announced impending changes to its operating systems that include new “protections for children” features in iCloud and iMessage. If you’ve spent any time following the Crypto Wars, you know what this means: Apple is planning to build a backdoor into its data storage system and its messaging system.
Child exploitation is a serious problem, and Apple isn't the first tech company to bend its privacy-protective stance in an attempt to combat it. But that choice will come at a high price for overall user privacy. Apple can explain at length how its technical implementation will preserve privacy and security in its proposed backdoor, but at the end of the day, even a thoroughly documented, carefully thought-out, and narrowly-scoped backdoor is still a backdoor.
To say that we are disappointed by Apple’s plans is an understatement. Apple has historically been a champion of end-to-end encryption, for all of the same reasons that EFF has articulated time and time again. Apple’s compromise on end-to-end encryption may appease government agencies in the U.S. and abroad, but it is a shocking about-face for users who have relied on the company’s leadership in privacy and security.
There are two main features that the company is planning to install in every Apple device. One is a scanning feature that will scan all photos as they get uploaded into iCloud Photos to see if they match a photo in the database of known child sexual abuse material (CSAM) maintained by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The other feature scans all iMessage images sent or received by child accounts—that is, accounts designated as owned by a minor—for sexually explicit material, and if the child is young enough, notifies the parent when these images are sent or received.
(Excerpt) Read more at eff.org ...
I’ve been a Microsoft adherent for decades, but when the mobile wars heated up, I stood firmly with Apple. We now stand athwart an industry with Google’s command on one side and Apple’s on the other. There’s no middle ground or alternative. Not sure if this is an antitrust opportunity, but there needs to be some sort of competition. This is bad news for everyone as I see it.
Any manufacturers making 4G/LTE flip phones?
Maybe the answer is to get a basic burner phone for phone calls, look a maps, take pictures and send texts. Forget about surfing the web and all the other “great features”.
Except people are addicted to their phones.
An additional concern is with this back door stuff, ... can stuff be planted on a person’s phone now when the givernment-big tech complex wants to take a target down?
“For the children” is a Trojan Horse “for the government”.
It is an excuse to gain access into all of our personal data. Clever, and people will fall for it. Remember when our legal system required warrants?
1984
So I assume the Bidens will no longer be using Apple. But on the other hand, it’s not like anything will happen to them anyway
You are exactly right. And then with the info, it will also be used to persecute and prosecute and to destroy people who they believe need to be taken out of society.
I and my parents use Tracfones. They both have flip phones - elderly & just can’t handle anything else. My dad makes some phone calls on his, but both phones are for emergencies. I have a Tracfone LG android that I bought on Amazon for a really good price - actually came with airtime as a bonus, too. Here’s a flip phone link at Tracfone:
https://shop.tracfone.com/shop/en/tracfonestore/phones/tf-lg-classic-flip-l125dl
You can also find Tracfones at stores like Walmart, Target, maybe Walgreens .... they may not have exactly what you want. The Tracfone store has a bigger selections.
The phones are not expensive & if you put time on quarterly, you can do it for $80/year. You can buy a year card, but that’s $99 (I think). I use my phone heavily so I end up buying extra texts ($5 for 1,000)) & I also buy extra ‘data’ if I’m going on a trip & use the phone for directions.
Overall, the Tracfones have been really good for us - airtime is easy to add & for the most part, if I’ve ever had to call customer service, it’s been an “ok” experience (foreign, but nice).
I need to go back to a flip phone, need to find one that can do text and serve as a WIFI access point.
Exactly. The domestic enemies constantly use the excuse of protection to further their agenda, whether it’s the virus or “the children”.
Notice the border for example: When Trump was in office the domestic enemies were constantly shrieking and crying about “the children”.. The children in cages, evil Trump is just like Hitler, the dorms are just like concentration camps to quote genius AOC.
Well look at them now with Biden in office. The border is a nightmare beyond all nightmares. Children as young as 2 being dumped and left alone.
Where are these protestors now? Where is AOC? Not a damn peep from any of them because they DO NOT CARE about kids, only what helps their party and their agenda. This is exactly what is going on at Apple. They are using the protect the children excuse.
BTW, when you buy a Tracfone, unless you set up an account with them (you don’t have to), there is no way to link the phone to you (if you buy with a charge card, that maybe could be traced by the big alphabet agencies ).
In some countries, you can buy a phone, but the SIM card has to be bought separately & “registered” - this is an anti-terrorism/crime measure I believe. In the US, the Tracfone SIM card comes with the phone and is not registered to any particular person - frankly, I’m surprised because Tracfones are good “burner” phones.
The back door stuff is what scares me.
They don’t like you, they plant something nefarious on your phone and you are toast.
Totally illegal. Apple has tried this before and lost in court. Remember with people jail breaking their iPhones? Apple tried to say they could not do that and lost in courts.
It may be time to jailbreak your iPhones too? Oh and anyone else with a Smart Phone like Samsung, etc... that does not think it’s happening. Well it is.
Apple has been doing it for years. There are just admitting it now.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc... (Big Tech) users are spying on everyone passively. Your entire life is being recorded, and if they need to look back they can. Even if you select to turn off options. That’s only off for you and not for them.
I am not sure about Linux? Bottom line is this. You go online, then you are passively being recorded. Now it’s hard for people to find something with that much data. However, eventually when the A.I. and Quantum chips really work, then that’s not going to be good. Although we are probably 20 years from that.
Big tech is ready to work to destroy our civil rights and must be considered an arm of the government.
First, if they are serious about mitigating child abuse and not letting their cloud become a platform for it... They are going to have to scan every file uploaded to their cloud. Every image format, every file renamed to something else (in a simple attempt to get around such things), every archive (zip, tar, etc.).
Second, once you have an image to examine, "matching" to another set of images is no simple feat. A brute force pixel by pixel approach works at one level, but can be defeated by adding a border, or a watermark/tag, or cropping/scaling, or a different encoding level (lossy compression), or a tint/filter... You can do a statistical match, but still, a pixel by pixel comparison is computationally expensive.
Third, it is a huge problem. Consider just how many Apple iCloud users there are, how many thousands of pictures they each have. The number of images to be compared N total user images time M images in the database... With 850 million iCloud users, that's going to be in the high billions, maybe low trillions of image to image comparisons. Each image maybe a few million pixels, 3 or 4 channels (RGB & gamma) per pixel...
In a short time we've changed to where we allow the FBI to spy on presidential candidates to rig elections, let them get away with it, and now Apple publicly state they'll spy on any customer's iphone.
I wonder what the millennial apple worshippers will think of Apple spying on any iphone owned by a minor? Where are all the Dims who told us in the 1990's during the early days of Algore's internet that even child porn was beautifully protected free speech and that banning it would be a slippery slope to harming our 1st Amendment? They changed tune after the Dims started very publicly using tech to curtail free speech of political opponents.
Just a hunch, but Apple doesn’t care about protecting children. They do care about finding excuses to spy on people, though.
I am of the opinion that China has already done this with America’s political leadership. I expect that it is why so many Senators are so compliant to China’s ends.
Look at the small amount of what was made public from Hunter Biden’s laptop. Understand the egos of these people and the depth of their depravity.
I remember decades ago, I think it was, when “personalities” like Paris Hilton or the actor, Rob Lowe, were getting in trouble with what they were filming with modern technology. I had thought, “Why would anyone film this?” I think I now understand that they are compelled to. I think the same mindset applies to politicians.
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