Comment by kylehotchkiss
4 years ago
I found another source (https://www.macobserver.com/analysis/apple-scans-uploaded-co...) saying apple was already running these scans on iCloud using homomorphic encryption… in 2019. It doesn’t really make sense for them to run it on device. Apple has the keys to unlock iCloud backups on their server and a sizable portion of users have those enabled, so why bother to run these on device?
I’m not sure if it’s a rumor or not but there was a thread on HN the other day about Facebook exploring homomorphic encryption for running ads on WhatsApp and I wonder if wires got crossed?
The article said they could see Apple using homomorphic encryption. Not currently.
Scanning on phones is a step toward end to end encryption for photos probably. Or scanning not uploaded photos. Or both.