- How are we supposed to decide what we feel about this news
of Apple supposedly scanning the photos on our phone?
We're talking about sensitive stuff here,
like child exploitation,
which I'm sure we can all agree is a bad thing.
But we're also talking about possible corporate invasion
of our privacy, which is also alarming.
So it's really been hard for me to formulate
an unbiased opinion on this.
On the one hand, you have the Electronic Frontier Foundation
claiming that Apple is creating a backdoor,
and on the other, you have Apple's software chief saying-
- I think in no way is this a backdoor.
- So here's what quick recap of what's going on,
and after that, I'll share a crazy, personal story
that sums up my thoughts on this.
In early August, 2021,
Apple announced a child protection feature
that will roll out with its next OS update.
The aim is to take photos uploaded to iCloud
and then match them against a database of known CSAM images.
In other words, really bad stuff.
If there's a match of at least 30 images,
the case is automatically flagged for human review,
and then if they find something,
it's reported to authorities.
Now this kind of scanning is already being done
on platforms like Google and Facebook,
and you might be shocked by the number of reported cases
for each platform just in the past year.
I mean, I have two boys of my own
and it makes me sick to my stomach
to think of a child being abused in this kind of way.
The reason that most privacy advocates and Apple critics
are crying foul is because for the first time,
unlike Facebook and Google, for the first time,
the scanning is starting on your device,
not just when you upload it somewhere, and that's the rub.
The logic goes like this.
I have investment properties in the U.S.
that I rent out to generate income.
As a landlord, the person whose name
is on the deed of the house, I do not have the right,
at least in the United States,
to enter that property anytime I want.
I need to ask my renter's permission
or else they could sue me for trespassing.
I'm borrowing this from Dr. Neal Krawetz,
who gave this analogy on the Hacker Factor Blog.
Apple owns the operating system you're using
on your phone right now.
But the issue on the table is whether or not
they have a right to suddenly update the operating system
to begin searching the contents of your phone
without your permission.
And contrary to what you might read online right now,
this is not a black and white issue.
Apple has responded and claims that they're building privacy
into the process in a number of different ways.
First, they're breaking up this scanning process
by having your device do half of the work
and the cloud do the other half
so that there's a little protection between the two.
Second, the database they're matching against
is actually two independently run databases,
not government affiliated.
So supposedly the government can't add in something
that they want tracked as well.
Third, they're forcing a manual human review
before any kind of action is taken.
Now, for the most part,
This seems like a pretty solid solution.
I can't think of a better way to do it.
And of all the articles and criticisms I've read so far,
none of them have offered a better solution.
For me, there are just a couple of problems I see
that are worth pointing out.
First, even though the scan only happens for those photos
that are uploaded to iCloud, it's a bit unfair
because that's a default setting on our phone.
In other words, unless you manually turn it off,
your photos are probably syncing to iCloud,
even if you weren't aware of it,
and your photos will be matched up against this database.
So in order to make it fair,
Apple's gonna need to make iCloud not a default setting.
Second, we've got a case here where a search is being made
on our personal property without warrant or probable cause.
It's easy to justify this for something as blatant
and terrible as child exploitation,
but once Apple starts to open that door,
it's gonna be really hard for them to say no
to other less honorable requests.
What requests could that possibly be, you ask?
Well, let me tell you my own story here.
While I was living in China's western region of Xingjiang,
which is China's testing ground
for all kinds of surveillance and monitoring technology,
one of the things I was constantly on the lookout for
were these sidewalk checkpoints.
Local police at these checkpoints would stop people,
and me, and require that our phones be handed over
for inspection.
At this point, they would plug into the phone
and scan for specific photos, files, videos, apps,
whatever they deemed dangerous.
If anything was found,
you were carted off to the police station immediately.
And what files were they looking for, exactly?
Nobody knew except the Chinese government, of course.
It could have been something genuinely worrisome,
but it also could have been something as simple
as a copy of the Qur'an or an app they didn't like.
And the absence of true accountability,
whether that be the Chinese government
or a company like Apple, these kinds of back doors
into our private device is alarming.
What if China approaches Apple and tells them
that in order to continue to do business in the country,
they need to start scanning all devices
against a database that they provide.
Now that they've already developed
and deployed the technology to do this,
Apple has little leverage to say no.
There's a quote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation
in a "Vox" article that I really liked and it said,
"A thoroughly documented, carefully thought-out
and narrowly-scoped backdoor is still a backdoor."
Well, that's my hot take, but what do you think?
Has Apple crossed the line here,
or is this a necessary next step for our children?
I'd love to hear your thoughts,
the PG version of your thoughts,
in the comments below this video.
Thanks.