Thread by @reubenyap

1) Apple despite marketing itself as being for privacy is inexplicably introducing a new feature that would make your phone report to Apple who then reports to authorities if it detected child porn material (CSAM) on it. First of all does this truly solve the issue? #appleprivacy

2) Real offenders can easily use different devices and methods at the cost of the billion or so people now having a backdoor in their Apple device. Secondly, the system can be trivially modified to make your phone report on other non CSAM material.

3) Given this easy circumvention, is this just about making CSAM not an Apple problem or is the real reason more nefarious? Time and time again we surrender our liberties with questionable results on actually solving the issues they claim to solve.

4) It's a clever trick to justify mass surveillance in the name of combating CSAM, terrorism or a pandemic. After all, anyone who opposes it can be shamed for not supporting these noble goals! In fact I was warned by PR about how my comments on the same can be misconstrued.

5) We need not look far. The SESTA-FOSTA act that was passed in 2018 that made platforms on the internet liable if they knowingly promoted prostitution or sex trafficking was drafted in a way to effectively mandate these platforms to surveil communications through it.

6) Yet in the 3+ years it has become law, only one case has been prosecuted under the act which questions the law's efficacy while actually making it more dangerous for sex workers. theverge.com/2021/6/24/2254…

7) Don't fall for this narrative or the naming of such acts! A backdoor is a backdoor. While CSAM is a real problem, it doesn't make it right to then make every device an informant. There is no way to restrict such surveillance to only illegal material.

8) To illustrate a real way this can be abused. Let's say I am part of an activist group. I know a certain image is being shared by the activists. I add it to the database and bam, all the individual devices having that image is now reported to the authorities.

9) Combine this with Apple's Find My network which has had several vulnerabilities. It's scary what Apple's network of devices is becoming.
thehackernews.com/2021/03/bug-in… techtimes.com/articles/26028…

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