Apple plans to scan your images for child porn
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@dustinb3403 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@stacksofplates said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@dustinb3403 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@stacksofplates said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
The scan results would have to include the photo.
Actually no, the scans on-device create a hash record (MD5 or SHA256 probably) and then are compared against a known database of CSAM.
Anything that matches would start sending up red flags.
The actual photo may never get uploaded to iCloud.
That's a joke right? You didn't read the article. They're using a neutral network to compare an image to a database of checksummed images. Presumably by features like face, exif data, etc. Then a human verifies it's a match to content in the existing checksummed image.
A 4 year old could get around comparing two images by checksum. That's clearly not what's happening here. Just change a single pixel and it's different. You don't need a neural net to compare checksums.
By the explanation in the article, they have to have the photo to compare.
Wrong, the on-device code is creating a hash, and that hash recording is getting compared. Read the announcement again from Apple.
The machine learning comparison doesn't come in until the image is in iCloud. That's where the comparison happens, and then if a threshold is hit a human compares the images/hashes
The AI is running on device. Not sure where you read it's not. It's the same on device AI they are using for the iMessage sexually explicit verification.
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Wrong, the on-device code is creating a hash, and that hash recording is getting compared. Read the announcement again from Apple.
The machine learning comparison doesn't come in until the image is in iCloud. That's where the comparison happens, and then if a threshold is hit a human compares the images/hashes
The official statement doesn't even mention AI/neural in any way. Here's from their technical paper:
NeuralHash
NeuralHash is a perceptual hashing function that maps images to numbers. Perceptual hashing bases this
number on features of the image instead of the precise values of pixels in the image. The system computes
these hashes by using an embedding network to produce image descriptors and then converting those
descriptors to integers using a Hyperplane LSH (Locality Sensitivity Hashing) process. This process
ensures that different images produce different hashes.Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, the following on-device matching process is performed for that
image against the blinded hash table database. The device computes the image NeuralHash and looks up
the entry in the blinded hash table at the position pointed by the NeuralHash. The device uses the
computed NeuralHash to compute a cryptographic header. It also uses the blinded hash that the system
looked up to obtain a derived encryption key. This encryption key is then used to encrypt the associated
payload data.The AI is running on the phone and doing image verification based on features, not just a checksum.
Also it's eavesdrop.
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Also, if you look at their diagram in their white paper, the photo is part of the safety voucher, which is what is uploaded to iCloud.
So this is what I was getting at earlier.
This voucher is uploaded to iCloud Photos along with the image.
Is that separate from icloud backup or is the voucher sent along with the image when it's backed up? By their process description the photo has to be sent as well, because they can't verify other-wards.
This is why it's not straightforward and why I think @Carnival-Boy was making those statements.
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To me it's clear from the white paper that if you don't upload images to icloud, then this doesn't work. However, since I'm not an iPhone user, I don't know if you have any control over whether or not the photos stored on your phone are uploaded to your icloud account.
Basically, when images are uploaded to your icloud account, by your doing or automatically, your phone first does this hashing magic with csam results and then packages it along with your photo that is stored in your icloud account. At that point, the icloud scanners simply read the results that are packaged with your photo. I think of it like the photo having an attached health certificate that icloud scanner can pick up.
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Looks like Apple has gone fully off of the rails. Full on spying on their workers at home...
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@obsolesce said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
To me it's clear from the white paper that if you don't upload images to icloud, then this doesn't work. However, since I'm not an iPhone user, I don't know if you have any control over whether or not the photos stored on your phone are uploaded to your icloud account.
Basically, when images are uploaded to your icloud account, by your doing or automatically, your phone first does this hashing magic with csam results and then packages it along with your photo that is stored in your icloud account. At that point, the icloud scanners simply read the results that are packaged with your photo. I think of it like the photo having an attached health certificate that icloud scanner can pick up.
The issue is that they are scanning without the upload, and can based on that be forced to report on you. The upload limitation is an option on their end that they can't enforce. So it's moot.
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@scottalanmiller said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
Looks like Apple has gone fully off of the rails. Full on spying on their workers at home...
Not surprised - this is the exact mentality that some had around here... If I can't see you working/not working, then I assume you're not working. /sigh.
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@scottalanmiller said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
The issue is that they are scanning without the upload, and can based on that be forced to report on you.
It seems like this whole thing is only put into action via a trigger, which is the uploading of the image to your iCloud account. Before then, there's no way for any reporting. The reporting is done via iCloud servers based on the image voucher that's with your image in iCloud.
This whole thing is all about the iCloud Photos account accumulating enough CSAM matching vouchers. Without your photos being uploaded to your iCloud Photos account, this whole thing is moot.
For reference: https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/CSAM_Detection_Technical_Summary.pdf
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This is something law enforcement should be doing with a court ordered warrant not apple. Talk about big tech super reach. I get it they want to stop it before it happens but they are not the police.
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@itivan80 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
This is something law enforcement should be doing with a court ordered warrant not apple. Talk about big tech super reach. I get it they want to stop it before it happens but they are not the police.
I agree. And also why not scan for every other type of potential crime? Drug trafficking, terrorism, murder, war crimes etc.
Maybe apple should record all your conversations with the built-in mic in your device to keep track of what you're saying - without you knowing and without a warrant of course. Oh, I forgot, they were already caught doing that with Siri two years ago.
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@pete-s said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@itivan80 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
This is something law enforcement should be doing with a court ordered warrant not apple. Talk about big tech super reach. I get it they want to stop it before it happens but they are not the police.
I agree. And also why not scan for every other type of potential crime? Drug trafficking, terrorism, murder, war crimes etc.
Maybe apple should record all your conversations with the built-in mic in your device to keep track of what you're saying - without you knowing and without a warrant of course. Oh, I forgot, they were already caught doing that with Siri two years ago.
This is Scott's entire point...
And this child porn is literally just the foot in the door - tomorrow they WILL be searching for those things because warrants will make them.
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@itivan80 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
This is something law enforcement should be doing with a court ordered warrant not apple. Talk about big tech super reach. I get it they want to stop it before it happens but they are not the police.
No, because without the backdoor breaking the chain of encryption, nothing is there for a warrant.....
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@itivan80 said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
This is something law enforcement should be doing with a court ordered warrant not apple. Talk about big tech super reach. I get it they want to stop it before it happens but they are not the police.
Well in a way, they are actually now private unlicensed police.
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@stacksofplates said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
Also, if you look at their diagram in their white paper, the photo is part of the safety voucher, which is what is uploaded to iCloud.
So this is what I was getting at earlier.
This voucher is uploaded to iCloud Photos along with the image.
Is that separate from icloud backup or is the voucher sent along with the image when it's backed up? By their process description the photo has to be sent as well, because they can't verify other-wards.
This is why it's not straightforward and why I think @Carnival-Boy was making those statements.
It looks like it's only a single package that goes to iCloud. Either you choose to back up your photo to iCloud and in that case it's packaged with the voucher..... or NOTHING happens at all. The photo is not sent to iCloud and no scanning or anything happens.
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@scottalanmiller said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@obsolesce said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
To me it's clear from the white paper that if you don't upload images to icloud, then this doesn't work. However, since I'm not an iPhone user, I don't know if you have any control over whether or not the photos stored on your phone are uploaded to your icloud account.
Basically, when images are uploaded to your icloud account, by your doing or automatically, your phone first does this hashing magic with csam results and then packages it along with your photo that is stored in your icloud account. At that point, the icloud scanners simply read the results that are packaged with your photo. I think of it like the photo having an attached health certificate that icloud scanner can pick up.
The issue is that they are scanning without the upload, and can based on that be forced to report on you. The upload limitation is an option on their end that they can't enforce. So it's moot.
Another confirmation:
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@obsolesce if it was only on upload why put the signatures on every phone.
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@jaredbusch said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
@obsolesce if it was only on upload why put the signatures on every phone.
They need to be on the device if photos are going to be uploaded to iCloud Photos since I assume photo uploads are the behavior. I'm sure there are tons of things on these devices that aren't ever used. I doubt the signatures being on the phone matters if it's not used, that'll likely be the minority.
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@obsolesce said in Apple plans to scan your images for child porn:
I doubt the signatures being on the phone matters if it's not used, that'll likely be the minority.
They are a problem because they can be used. The gov't can force the upload with a warrant. So the existence of the capability is the exposure itself.
It's true, semantically we can say that there is no risk without an upload (so a phone that is dead, for example, is not affected.) But as the gov't or Apple as an organization has the power to enact the upload at will the problem exists before that point.
Similarly we could say that the upload doesn't matter because we aren't exposed until the data from the upload is handed to the gov't.
Or we could say that the gov't stealing our data doesn't matter until they use it maliciously.
Or we could say that being arrested and taken to court for pictures that Apple claims to have found on our phones, or the police claim to have gotten from Apple, doesn't matter until we end up in jail for something we didn't do.
Any step taking away our freedom of speech, any step threatening journalists or minorities can be seen as irrelevant until it is fully used to hurt someone. But that's not the case. The power and opportunity itself is a threat and threats are primarily what stop freedoms.
