Apple Addresses CSAM Detection Concerns, Will Consider Expanding System on Per-Country Basis

[transpo1]

This is a horrendous idea with so many ways this tech could go wrong.

Limiting it to the U.S. is not a solution and it’s obtuse of Apple to think so. Apple needs to stop now. Get rid of the feature, both the iCloud and Messages versions. No one wants this.

I’m astounded at the number of people who have liked this comment. I would encourage everyone who did to— respectfully— make some “noise” this week— on Twitter, by emailing Apple, by calling them, whatever your communication method of choice. If we all make our voices heard on this, perhaps they will reverse the decision to include these features.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

 

[baypharm]

Image hashes aren’t images.

They may not be images that you can see, but they are still digital replicas of those images.

 

[I7guy]

They may not be images that you can see, but they are still digital replicas of those images.

Is there a way of deconstructing a hash into the original bits and bytes of the source?

 

[Heelpir8]

They may not be images that you can see, but they are still digital replicas of those images.

Definitely news to me.

 

[Razorpit]

Maybe you can show me example China sentence someone for holding Winne the Pooh image?

Or maybe you are just blowing things out of proportion?

Read up on the China social credit score system then get back to us.

 

[HacKage]

Maybe you can show me example China sentence someone for holding Winne the Pooh image?

Or maybe you are just blowing things out of proportion?

Ask and you shall receive. Spend 60 seconds educating yourself before you start questioning other people.

University of Minnesota Student Jailed for 6 Months for Critical Tweets He Sent in the U.S.

Luo Daiqing, who attends the University of Minnesota in the U.S., was sentenced to six months in jail by a district court in November for “provocation."

time.com

Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh

The Bear of Very Little Brain joins a long line of funny internet references to China's top leaders.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[baypharm]

Is there a way of deconstructing a hash into the original bits and bytes of the source?

Probably. If they can turn a digital picture into a hash, there should be a way to work it the other way.

 

[quarkysg]

Probably. If they can turn a digital picture into a hash, there should be a way to work it the other way.

Erm ... not possible, due to lost of information.

 

[thewhitehart]

I love being part of the MacRumors community. I come here because I seek the advice of Mac users who have far more experience than I do. This forum is an invaluable resource for me, and I am forever grateful for it.

Unlike the Eternal September, where Usenet met its demise, Apple chooses to preemptively strike against a scourge that destroyed an entirely useful protocol. I support Apple’s on-device method; who types “nntp://“ into their browser anymore?

I’m a net user from the 90s. Usenet was a huge proportion of the web for me. It was cool. It got destroyed by ass***s who made it into a haven for trading filth. ISPs stopped carrying it.

I’m pretty torn on the privacy issues here. I’d be glad for any respondent to argue for/against.

Like I said, I’m glad to be a MacRumors member. ?

 

[thewhitehart]

Sorry for my technical misinterpretation on points. I’m a technical writer—I know I’ve made mistakes. I’m glad for them to be pointed out for the purpose of discussion. ?

 

[317342]

This site is full of folks who sound like Republicans claiming that their personal freedom is being harmed in an attempt to do the right thing.

We must do our best to remove these images from circulation. This is a good idea. But no, people are crapping on it because FREEDUM!

Children lack the autonomy and no less the "freedom" to protect themselves in the absence of ethical guardianship; otherwise, CPS wouldn't exist.

The amusing if not equally horrifying indirect effect of this policy is how quickly it surfaced the raucous "I don't care how many kids are exploited so long as I feel free" crowd.

 

[hot-gril]

So you are claiming to have sold your Apple stock because a company is trying to help stop paedophiles? That says far more about you, than it does Apple.

Not just claiming, did sell.

 

[hot-gril]

This just seems like a major contradiction. How can Apples system get a match on a cropped, color adjusted, pixel modifies, distorted image, yet claim false positives will be so low? There is some leeway to the hash matching if a unique photoshop edit can be caught.

Do they get matches on those? Then AI is soft-matching, and I missed something. Yeah, that increases the chances.

 

[hot-gril]

I also have investments in Apple. From a investment standpoint normally compromises in privacy lead into enhancements in monetisation of user data. However, in this case Apple is just destroying their credibility in their product and services marketing without any gains. If this becomes a trend then this will have strong effect on consumer confidence in Apple products. However, before that happens AAPL takes a dive and I don’t want to be part of it. I truly hope Apple gets rid of those who came up with this moronic plan and goes back to guarding user privacy.

I was slightly worried about that, but my main reason to sell is I just don't want to be invested in them anymore. It doesn't necessarily make financial sense, but it's ok, I have other places to put the money.

 

[hot-gril]

Probably. If they can turn a digital picture into a hash, there should be a way to work it the other way.

Hashes by definition aren't 1:1, so there's no reverse way. And a cryptographic hash intends for it to be practically impossible to guess any of the inputs that result in a given hash output.

 

[HyperliteG4]

Sign the privacy letter here: https://appleprivacyletter.com

 

[romanof]

It has no effect on me as announced - I seldom have photos on my phone and they are usually just some item that I can compare when I get to the store to make sure I am purchasing the right thing.

But it still p****s me off...

 

[0924487]

Nope.
It’s a local labelling applied to pictures that are on the way to iCloud.
Otherwise nobody will ever know about this “CP or not” label.
Like a tree falling in a forest when no one is listening.

It’s about what the technology is capable of, and the legal precedent it sets.

If I have something on you that can ruin your entire life, and I promise not to disclose it or use it against you, as long as you keep your end of the bargain. Will you not want to kill me and take it back? What if I changed my mind and asks you for something else that you cannot tolerate? What about more? Want to kill me now? It will never stop until you do.

For starters, I will falsely accuse you of rape. You coerced and sexually assaulted me since I was 14. But, if you keep quiet about the teacher I poisoned to death, no one needs to find out about your dirty little secrets.

 

[monkeybagel]

I must admit that this was quite a shock for me to read when it was posted. I refrained from commenting initially to see what others would say and determine how I felt about this, and if it was a serious enough move to cause me to abandon the iPhone as my smartphone of choice (and has been since the iPhone 4 when it became available on my carrier). I have two Macintosh laptops, and a Mac Pro that I have had since 2013. I have been very happy with all of my Apple products. However the MacBook Pro I have no longer supports the current OS, and neither does the Mac Pro (only up to Mojave if you upgrade the GPU and abandon the boot screen). My MacBook Air was purchased for a special purpose at the time and is not a high-spec device being a 2017 model with an i5 processor and 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

I purchased my first Macintosh when Apple first released Boot Camp for the Intel-powered iMacs, and I purchased a 20" with 2GB of RAM and upgraded it to 4GB (3 usable) and began learning OS X as I wasn't that excited about Vista. I continued using OS X, and leveraged its stability to run a lab of virtual machines simultaneously, and after Windows 8 was a severe disappointment purchased a Mac Pro as my next workstation. I ordered it maxed out with two hex-core Xeon 3.06GHz processors, a 512 SSD, and put 128GB of RAM into it and have two 27" LED Cinema Displays attached. It to this day has never given me any issues.

When I read the rumors that Apple was going to be moving away from Intel to using their own processors, I immediately presumed their products would no longer meet my needs since I leverage the virtualization of Intel processors and VMware Fusion. I knew the chances if it emulating x86/x64 at a useful speed would be almost impossible. Without the processor supporting native virtualization, I don't see the M1 processors, as fast and efficient as they are, fitting into my needs any longer. I am sure they are great for most Apple users sans customers with specific requirements.

I love my iPhone 11 Pro and have owned all iPhones since the iPhone 4 CDMA, upgraded to a 5S, 6S Plus, X, and now the 11. I had no intention of upgrading to another phone until this one no longer was functional. Now I have decided that my next phone for the first time in a long time will not be an iPhone.

This is going against the very core values that Apple emphasizes about it products. Of course like others I hope and want anyone guilty of committing crimes against children to be caught and tried for their crimes in a court of law and be punished. I do not feel this is an acceptable way to go about it. As we have seen before, an overwhelming number of overreaching pieces of legislation that would be questioned as acceptable, the two common reasons given to convince the public it is in their best interest is because it 1) stops terrorism, or 2) stops child pornography. After all, if you speak up against number 2, it can make people look at you as someone who thinks it is an acceptable practice and gives the entity the best chances of passing overreaching legislation or conduct.

This is not okay. If Apple is going to begin being a nanny, they need to remove the trash off of Apple Music as well that most sane people would not classify as "music" in any way.

I wanted to add some thoughts about my first post regarding this controversy technology.

An unintended consequence of this “feature” was clearly not well received from Apples customers. I understand it is difficult for people son the other side of the technology to gauge the impact of such changes with the hope it will make them look as a company than only stays on the right side of the road, but when the company goes to great lengths to promote itself as privacy oriented, this specific revelation lose the customers trust in Apple that they were even considering such a plan. I can say that I look at all Apple iPhones differently, including iMessage and OS X. I no longer have faith that this close source OS based on BSD is not doing the same thing. I feel this is happening in a massive sale for the technical users of Macintosh products that previously had no reason or evidence to to be concerned that something was going on behind the scenes that it intentionally invisible and boxing this data up and sending it to and unknown Internet Server that does NOT provide and sense or privacy. I would like to know the Apple Executive or Board member that recommended this, and it they are technically intelligent to analyze the snowball downfall of Apples core values. This is happening quickly, and changed the opinion of a Apple User since 2006 that start with the iMac, then iPhone, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, iPad, mand iPhones, and other Apple devices. This CSAM fiasco was handle poorly, causing me to lose and kind or sense of privacy on any Fruit device. The only was to save face now is to make an announcement that all code has been removed from the OS, admit their mistake, and provide evidence it was removed.

It saddens me as Apple was the best of all evils making money off your private data and selling I intrusive ads in this I make it a point to not purchase these products.
Apple, if it’s not to late needs to 1)admit their mistakes
2)It they can, convince users that program has been destroyed
3)Be sincere enough the public believes them
4)Hope it’s not to late

All it takes is one large lapse of judgement to bring a company down.
I like Craig’s personally but no matter the lengths he goes to clarify it, Apple users generally understand this and do not agree. The only option left is to circumcise this evil technology out of iOS devices hope the company will come around.
As for me, unless *drastic* reassurance that Apple changed course I expect no additional Apple product in the future. If Apple can’t keep out data secure, no other vendor can. It is disappointing to say the least.
I encourage people on board to do the same.

 

[monkeybagel]

Blackberry never touch on things like this. Even though the use Android as the OS, I hope it is a disto that is the OS only and has zero influence from outside entities.
Blackberry was the standard for security and iOS still has not caught up in many way. I will consider a Blackberry as my next phone.

 

[BFG86]

 

[Tech198]

US government known not to abuse systems

When in doubt. sort it out... big brother