Remember the CSAM scanning debacle almost a year ago? I and others speculated that the reason Apple was trying to make the CSAM-scanning and Safety Vouchers client-side was so that they would be able to allow E2E encryption while having a plausible reason to shut down law enforcement's biggest argument against E2E.
It wouldn't stop at CSAM. Along side it in urgency of appeal to fear is counter-terrorism* . Next would be drug dealing, threats of violence. Then copyright infringement. And finally Amber Alerts and silver alerts. A backdoor or warrant-less search for one category is a backdoor for all. The point is for government power to trump privacy.
*The definition of terrorism depends on your jurisdiction.
That's a very optimistic point of view. On the other hand, I and others speculated that the reason Apple wants to introduce code on your device that scans local content on your device against a government mandated database of "wrong content" was to appease law enforcement's desire for more control.
I could have sworn apple even straight up said that was their goal?
Maybe I am just misremembering since like you I figured that was the reason they were doing it, no other reason to do something like that if it was all going too sit there unencrypted.
gjsman-1000|3 years ago
supertrope|3 years ago
*The definition of terrorism depends on your jurisdiction.
gigel82|3 years ago
nerdjon|3 years ago
Maybe I am just misremembering since like you I figured that was the reason they were doing it, no other reason to do something like that if it was all going too sit there unencrypted.