Discussion

• @evacide Eva on x

  BREAKING: Apple pauses its plan to do client-side scanning for CSAM. https://www.cnbc.com/... This is a direct response to the outcry from users and civil society. We're not done, but this is a reminder that collective action moves the needle.

• @snowden Edward Snowden on x

  I agree with this. @Apple must go further than merely “listening”—it must drop entirely its plans to put a backdoor into systems that provide vital protections to the public. Don't make us fight you for basic privacy rights. https://www.eff.org/...

• @zackwhittaker Zack Whittaker on x

  “It's a major embarrassment for Apple... it's a sign that their internal teams weren't adequately prepared and lacked the ideological diversity to gauge the scope of the issue that they were tackling.” @lucasmtny. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  I had people messaging me asking if Apple was going to flag photos of their own children as CSAM, due to conflation of technologies. For a firm hailed for marketing, this was a colossal public fuck up that hurt everybody including CSAM victims. Seriously you inexcusable morons.

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  Immediately after this revelation about heuristically detecting child abuse, they say a machine will scan your pictures for child abuse and report you to the police. Are these technologies connected? No need to be specific here! Also, “children” will be ratted on to their parents…

• @ukzak Zak Doffman on x

  Apple won't get away with just tweaking it's CSAM plans. Just like WhatsApp with Facebook data sharing and Google with FLoC, only a total backtrack will fix this. https://www.eff.org/...

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  The most important, and first example, is Apple claiming they have developed machine-learning to detect, without prior knowledge or human input, “sensitive content” in the context of child abuse. There is a machine deciding if a picture is sensitive. What does “sensitive” mean? h…

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  Here is the link to the original as it appeared on August 5th, 2021. A Thursday. This was intended to be an applauded topic of policy discussion, and not a closeted Friday night news dump disclosure. Apple wanted you to know their action. Now, the content. https://web.archive.org…

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  Apple's CSAM “solution” was a disjointed executive-driven fantasy project rolled out incompetently to what they thought would be career-benefiting accolades that their own people didn't have basic answers to how or why, or plans for making this work subject to client-side attack.…

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  (Intermission as I attend to some cooking: Apple should fire everyone involved at this point. This is far enough to be customer-endangering drivel. But we've got so much longer to go in this nightmare of English text.)

• @cstross Charlie Stross on x

  I kinda understand why/how Apple got themselves into their current terrible mess over on-phone CSAM scanning, but I wish they'd stop digging and instead openly admit that it's a political quid pro quo to get the SLAs to stop targeting them with vicious spyware like NSO's Pegasus.

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  Apple's “Child Safety” announcement may be one of the worst public communications failures in recent memory. It is vague where it should be specific, technical where it should be human, and ultimately either an artifact of rank incompetence or a failed gambit. Let's analyze it.

• @samifathi_ Sami Fathi on x

  Let's be frank: Apple delaying CSAM is rather useless. No amount of delays or “improvements” will remove the stain the announcement itself & following controversy have created. The damage is already done.

• @cstross Charlie Stross on x

  Forget the tech, we can't have an honest discussion about it if we don't acknowledge the realpolitik behind public policy demands for on-device scanning for illicit material, of whatever kind. (CSAM is merely the stuff the Five Eyes think they can rally public support against.)

• @swiftonsecurity SoS on x

  “Child” has multiple definitions. Biologically, it's before adolescence. Legally and in context of child sexual abuse, it's someone below age of 18. That's the context we're operating under. This literally says Apple will detect teenagers in sexual situations and alert someone. h…

• @timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x

  Great move by Apple to reconsider iCloud photo snooping. Scanning content for legality belongs in a publishing context - where one is sharing it with the public - not on a customer's device, and not when storing one's personal effects. https://twitter.com/...

• @gossithedog Kevin Beaumont on x

  A month ago an Apple exec sent out an internal email talking about “the screeching voices of the minority”, referring to internet people highlighting problems with their child sexual abuse material scanning system. Ivory towers are harsh mistresses. https://twitter.com/...

• @joannastern Joanna Stern on x

  Just in from Apple on the CSAM tools. The company is taking “additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.” https://twitter.com/...

• @jonfortt Jon Fortt on x

  Apple hits pause on move to scan user devices for images of child sexual abuse. From the company: ⁦@CNBCTechCheck⁩ $AAPL https://twitter.com/...

• @matthew_d_green Matthew Green on x

  I've seen two people post PhotoDNA implementations in the last two weeks. One is on the front page of HN. These are algorithms that were secret and under NDA for years before Apple's announcement. (And Apple doesn't even use PhotoDNA.)

• @neilcybart Neil Cybart on x

  To be clear, I think concerns that Apple would take lessons from CSAM detection and then build additional detection apparatuses that are far more controversial (i.e. detect people who write certain things in the Notes app) are misplaced.