[testvox]

> If that's true, as an iCloud user you are exactly as likely to be charged with a crime based on your photos as you were before

Is this strictly true? I feel like the evidence that a photo was present on specific device is different from evidence that a photo was uploaded by a specific account (and a specific ip address probably).

It seems like it would be far easier for the government to justify a search warrant if they have evidence the photo they are looking for was on a specific device. Just having evidence that a specific account uploaded a photo seems like far shakier grounds to search a specific device, after all accounts are often stolen to be used for criminal purposes and ip addresses don't map cleanly to people or devices.

[twobitshifter]

Maybe there’s some plausible deniability if a warrant uncovered nothing - but I think they would always be able get a warrant and try to find the device and more evidence based on the upload.

From what I’ve read the on-phone scanning only alerts after multiple photos and is designed to have a 1 in a trillion false positive rate. If the iCloud scan is similar they would have a strong case for getting a warrant based on uploads.