[CapcomGo]

Sure it is. This isn't a feature or setting that users check often or ever. Now, their data is being sent without their permission or knowledge.

[latexr]

Which is wrong but doesn’t make it a coverup, which by definition assumes trying to hide evidence of wrongdoing.

[talldayo]

It is a coverup. Apple is overtly and completely aware of the optics surrounding photo scanning - they know that an opt-in scheme cannot work as they found out previously.

Since they cannot convince users to enable this feature in good-faith, they are resorting to subterfuge. We know that Apple is vehement about pushing client-side scanning on users that do not want it, I do not believe for a second that this was a mistake or unintended behavior. If this was a bug then it would have been hotfixed immediately to prevent the unintended behavior from reaching any more phones than it already had.