Apple just announced a major change that has privacy advocates totally freaked out

[Andy Meek]

If the thousands of security and privacy experts who've raised an outcry on social media over the past few days -- and signed at least one letter calling for change -- are correct, then Apple is about to make a staggeringly awful miscalculation. More specifically, they're warning that a new feature set baked into the company's software in the name of cracking down on one very specific, very horrible act (using iPhones in the service of child exploitation) will actually open the door to the very dystopian privacy nightmare that Apple's own leaders have warned about for years. The target of this ire: The newly announced features that include Apple scanning photos in search of content related to the exploitation of children. This was announced by the company a few days ago, and represents an attempt by Apple to try and operate within the security paradigm it created for its own hardware and software, while also targeting people who use the company's tools to hurt kids.

By the way, let's not forget a few facts about Apple as we take a deeper look at this: This controversy has been generated by the same company that promises "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone," according to the verbatim text of an ad the company displayed in Las Vegas at CES a couple of years ago. And it's also the same company that's made a number of compromises to appease the oppressive Chinese regime into allowing it to do business in the country. A country that amounts to a surveillance state.

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Apple just announced a major change that has privacy advocates totally freaked out originally appeared on BGR.com on Sun, 8 Aug 2021 at 15:58:57 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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