It’s a general purpose framework, promoted as a user safety thing (it would give you a “speed bump” before posting photos detected as potentially containing nudity)
Google says it doesn’t send the results anywhere (at least for the use case they’re promoting) – they supposedly stay on your phone
Google didn’t announce any intentions earlier, nobody reviewed it, thus no “blowback” before they pushed it out to everyone via OTA, with no obvious opt-out or consent
Of note: it is well known Google does cloud scanning. Apple doesn’t because the photos are encrypted in iCloud* hence the scrapped client side scanning.
Given the two major mobile OSes have attempted to do this semi shadily, it doesn’t seem like a crazy stretch to assume there’s some external pressure such as a secret government order.
* using a key included in iCloud backups, thus they can technically access the key and photos unless you use Advanced Data Protection. AFAIK nothing indicates they have the means to use it for automated scanning.
Obviously you shouldn’t rely on trust for these things. Own your bits and peace is guaranteed.
I see this more as let the government peek in on my private things because they don’t already have enough information about me. It’s always in the guise of protect the children or keep the evil hackers from me. Most of the security features, especially this one seem more like we want to monetize steal, and remove whatever kind of privacy you thought you had. Anyone who uses a phone with any expectation of privacy is unfortunately in a fantasy land. Whether Apple or Android. And despite whatever Google says, if suddenly there’s a law that you need to do x. They just insert it into the root level thing. They can do whatever the heck it wants. With no notifications.
Wasn’t this something that Apple announced a few years ago before lots of blow back?
Apple announced a client-side scanning feature for iOS in 2021, and abandoned it in 2022.
This appears to be a little different in that:
Otherwise, yeah, very similar.
Of note: it is well known Google does cloud scanning. Apple doesn’t because the photos are encrypted in iCloud* hence the scrapped client side scanning.
Given the two major mobile OSes have attempted to do this semi shadily, it doesn’t seem like a crazy stretch to assume there’s some external pressure such as a secret government order.
* using a key included in iCloud backups, thus they can technically access the key and photos unless you use Advanced Data Protection. AFAIK nothing indicates they have the means to use it for automated scanning.
Obviously you shouldn’t rely on trust for these things. Own your bits and peace is guaranteed.
I see this more as let the government peek in on my private things because they don’t already have enough information about me. It’s always in the guise of protect the children or keep the evil hackers from me. Most of the security features, especially this one seem more like we want to monetize steal, and remove whatever kind of privacy you thought you had. Anyone who uses a phone with any expectation of privacy is unfortunately in a fantasy land. Whether Apple or Android. And despite whatever Google says, if suddenly there’s a law that you need to do x. They just insert it into the root level thing. They can do whatever the heck it wants. With no notifications.