“Apple implemented a hash based Client-Side scanning of images on iPhones last year [2021]. The purported reason is to catch those with illegal images. Now here we are a year later, with unintended consequences for this very bad decision. Well, not a bad decision for Intelligence agencies. But very bad for all the users of any Apple or even potentially Google phones.” - Rob Braxman
This is an important look at what Apple is doing on iPhones.
In Spite of Its Ads, It’s [Apple] Quacking Like a Duck
00:49 It turns out that recent innovations on
00:51 the iPhone have made it the most
00:52 sophisticated surveillance device ever
00:55 made,
00:56 surpassing anything done by Google. You
00:59 can ignore what i say. Just because Apple
01:01 says it’s not in the spying business,
01:04 three letter agencies said the same, and
01:06 Snowden revealed that they were lying. If
01:08 Apple quacks like a duck, I’m going to
01:11 say it is a duck. The fact of the matter
01:14 is that even those who do not have
01:16 iPhones are now part of the surveillance
01:18 net created by iPhone users. This content
01:22 is based on the detail I’ve explained in
01:24 several recent videos.
01:26 This is meant to tie everything together,
01:28 into a coherent story. You can watch
01:30 those videos if you want to dig in
01:32 deeper; if you want to see the big
01:34 picture of what Apple is doing.
Apple has announced that they’ve done this, so governments now know that it’s available. So governments could pass laws to require access to that data. And since it’s a proven technology, Google could make a similar technology. And they now have the option to do it but not announce it, to not alert its users.
Since the AI to do this can do all sorts of other things, it could also do other things, like turn on and record your camera, your audio (already done for voice commands), and a multitude of other tasks.
All of this is more justification for moving to free and open source mobile computing, with code that can be viewed and checked by anyone who wants to do to, and thus expose any unwanted services trying to gain entrance to its users.
Here’s an update on the security problem with Apple AirTag tracking