Apple also states that it provided customer data to the US government almost 4,000 times last year.Īpple's Privacy statement from its official privacy homepage Apple
In May, Apple was accused of compromising on censorship and surveillance in China after agreeing to move the personal data of its Chinese customers to the servers of a state-owned Chinese firm. Researchers have already pointed out all the ways this could be exploited and the markets Apple could be removed from if it doesn’t comply with government requests. And yet an answer will come - and it will come from the worst lawmakers of the worst governments. “If Apple demonstrates the capability and willingness to continuously, remotely search every phone for evidence of one particular type of crime, these are questions for which they will have no answer. As long as you keep that material off their servers, and so keep Apple out of the headlines, Apple doesn’t care.”Īnd, for those of you already thinking ahead, Snowden points out there is an obvious next step to this process: governments compelling Apple to remove the option to Disable photo uploads to iCloud.
“If you’re an enterprising pedophile with a basement full of CSAM-tainted iPhones, Apple welcomes you to entirely exempt yourself from these scans by simply flipping the ‘Disable iCloud Photos’ switch, a bypass which reveals that this system was never designed to protect children, as they would have you believe, but rather to protect their brand. Apple's CSAM detection system is coming to Apple iOS 15 and macOS Monterey next month Apple1įurthermore, Snowden points out that the entire system is easily bypassed which undermines the stated aim behind its creation: