Pretty confident Apple is going to ditch client-side CSAM scanning in favor of server-side CSAM scanning. This will be an improvement, but will leave them in a tight corner with E2EE.
Still a massive improvement: the deployment of client-side scanning for cloud backups would have been an asterisk on all device privacy forever, particularly as cloud backups become increasingly non-optional.
There would have been enormous pressure for companies to deploy similar technologies, and to expand the content they scan for. Some would have handled this pressure gracefully, but many would not have.
It is amazing how close we came to a world where law enforcement runs powerful scanning algorithms on the private data stored on your personal device, and how many smart, decent people were on board with that.
Anyway, what Apple needs to do know is decide whether E2EE for iCloud is even possible. The (coming) commitment to server-side scanning of private photo backups is going to make this awkward for them.
Just one more thought: say what you want about Apple, but they are very competent product people. They sometimes launch duds, but they don’t (usually) try to launch products that people actively dislike.
The fact that they launched this product — and tried to defend it even over the objections of their own employees — should tell you how much government pressure they are under right now re: encryption.
And they didn’t just try to launch it. It would be in iOS 15 right now if there hadn’t been massive blowback.
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