Comment by nitrogen

The other way around. If the database of fingerprints is unauditable, and especially if the database varies from country to country, then it would be very easy to add fingerprints for classified documents, or photos documenting known war crimes, or even just copyrighted stuff to close the so-called analog hole.

Documents could also be engineered to trigger false positives, making it difficult or impossible for a corporate whistleblower to photograph incriminating evidence to deliver to the authorities.

So, if the rumors are true and every iPhone will check every photo against an opaque database of perceptual fingerprints, what safeguards exist (beyond "trust us" from the database keepers) to prevent abuse of the feature to suppress evidence and control the flow of information, and which organizations or governments will have control over the contents of the database? As always, who watches the watchers?