Comment by durovo
4 years ago
If it seems like this scanning is working as advertised, this will be a great marketing stunt for Apple. Actual predators will stop using Apple products out of fear of getting caught and they will be forced to use Android.
Now any person who owns an Android is a potential predator. Also, if you are trying to jailbreak your iPhone, you are a potential predator.
Some 'predators' are dumb. They'll keep using iPhones, get caught, and have their mugshots posted in the press. Great PR for the policy makers who decided this. Such stories will be shoved in the faces of the privacy advocates who were against it, to the detriment of their credibility.
Yeah, and a lot of shortsighted people (even here) will be happy, because they are not 'predators'.
Of course, they won't be shown photos of victims of brutal dictatorships like Russia, Belarus, China, etc. They love it that phone manufacturer keeps their phone free of malware.
> They love it that phone manufacturer keeps their phone free of malware.
They love it that phone manufacturer tells their phone free of malware.
Fixed that for you. See: Pegasus.
I'd argue that this update is spyware and malware. Policy-makers are counting on normies being accepting of law-enforcement malware if the crimes targeted are serious enough.
The twitter comments also mentioned scanning for political propaganda etc. This could work against Apple if normal folks don't want all their stuff scanned on behalf of unnamed agencies.
Or they will just get one step deeper into the dark, by using a designated device for the dirty stuff. Potentially only used within tor/vpn with no connection to "normal"-life.
Congratz, investigations got a bit harder, but now all people have to life with a tool that will be used against them when needed. No sane person can believe that this isn't used for other "crimes" (how ever those are defined) tomorrow.
I think having a manufacturer that is able to read the contents of your device at any point is good marketing. Although, I know some Apple users that would certainly buy that excuse.