Will CSAM scan photos on the device or not ?

Question

Will CSAM scan photos on the device or not ?

The recent press release by Apple regarding CSAM includes the statement.

“This feature does not work on your private iPhone photo library on the device.” This implies that there is NO scanning of photos on the device itself.

Yet in the CSAM tech spec it clearly states “Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the database of known CSAM hashes”.

This means that photos on the device itself ARE scanned. It contradicts the press release.

So…which is it ?

Anyone at Apple care to clarify ?

Posted on Aug 10, 2021 2:59 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 18, 2021 5:22 AM in response to jamesfromoxon

Apple’s current FAQ explicitly states that they will download the CSAM hashes to your device. The only reason for the hashes to be on the device would be for a program on the device to use them. So while they continue to say “we only scan photos uploaded to iCloud” they are doing that scanning ON YOUR DEVICE.

Not knowing how many images comprise the database, there will be some amount of storage that gets used up by all these hashes. Likely that download of hashes to your device isn’t determined by whether you have iCloud photos enabled, so you’ll probably be giving up some storage space no matter what.

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Answer 2

Sep 4, 2021 10:52 AM in response to Mimiti5

Apple have recently announced that they’re ‘reviewing’ the situation.

To my mind though, their decade long championing of user privacy has gone in the trash. At least with Google it’s open source, so you can see the code. Apple just say ‘trust us’ whilst at the same time acceding to the demands of China etc with regard to the App Store. Why is this any different ?

I’ve been an iPhone user since the 3G and a watch user since 4. There are 4 iPhones and 2 Apple Watches in my house me that I pay for. There will NOT be replaced by apple products.

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