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> Under no circumstances is it justifiable to essentially enlist people's devices to police their owners, while using the electricity that you pay for, the internet service you pay for, and the device itself that you pay for to perform a function that is to absolutely no benefit to the user and in fact can only ever be harmful to them.

This is an obvious misrepresentation. An opt-in system to detect when adults are trying to groom kids by sending them porn seems like the opposite of harm. I imagine a lot of parents want that.

As for scanning what gets sent to iCloud. That’s also an opt-in service, and frankly it seems entirely reasonable for Apple not to want their servers to be used as a repository or hub for child porn.



It's not a misrepresentation whatsoever.

If Apple wishes to scan what's on their servers, that is their prerogative. They can use their compute resources and energy to do so. You needn't install spyware on a person's device that is of no benefit to the user. I'll reiterate, this can only ever be harmful to the user. Its utility right now is at its absolute best and most altruistic and it is still a violation of people's privacy and stealing computing resources from the device owner.

> That’s also an opt-in service, and frankly it seems entirely reasonable for Apple not to want their servers to be used as a repository or hub for child porn.

This will not stop their servers being used as a repository for illicit materials, if that is what you're suggesting.


Maybe they want to turn iCloud fully e2e, so cannot actually scan anymore on their servers.

They have to scan for CSAM by US law.


Could someone point to the relevant statute/regulation?


As far as I'm aware, there is none, though the EARN IT act that passed the Senate last year would have brought us closer by opening a company to liability if they provide E2E encryption without a mechanism for CSAM detection. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EARN_IT_Act_of_2020


They don’t have to scan by US law. They only have to report detections, so if you have a content moderation team, they must report.

The EU and UK are in the process of passing laws requiring scanning.


> stealing computing resources from the device owner.

No, it is opt-in. Nothing is being stolen.




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