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As a physician myself, I have to wonder if the context of these images was interpreted correctly.

This guy was a medical oncologist.  I have not tried to find the story, but I wonder if he is a pediatric medical oncologist.  Sometimes these doctors take photos of lesions, wounds, other issues on patients and later post them to the chart, etc.  If the affected areas are near breasts or genitals, I could see how these could be mistaken by a lay person for sexually-exploitative images.  These chart photos are may be distasteful to lay people, but they are important to monitor progress of these areas.  He could have left Cloud backup of photos turned on, and that's how they ended up on iCloud.  If THAT is the scenario, then a perfectly good man just had his career destroyed by an overzealous tech industry that didn't stay in their own lane.  Even if this is not the case, it's a possibility that could occur to someone else, destroying the very person that is trying to save those kids' lives.

All that being said, it's possible that these photos had nothing to do with patient treatment and were purely for sexual gratification of some twisted human mind.  If that's the case, then he needs some very serious mental help, and deserves what's coming.

For those that are about to point out that a doctor shouldn't be using a personal phone for those kinds of things, try looking into what it takes to get a formal by-the-bureaucracy authorized photo of these things.  It's damned near impossible, and can take days for approval, which is useless in monitoring fast-moving treatments such as surgery or certain types of radiation therapy where things change daily or sometimes hourly.

And yes, high-end EMR's such as EPIC have applications for your phone that allow you to take photos directly to the chart without storing them on the phone.  But less expensive EMR's don't necessarily have this option.

Update:
After making this post, I spent some time looking for some information that was more informative than "exploitative images" or "pornography," which could be subject to interpretation.  I found a copy of the initial criminal complaint at: https://padailypost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/file0.43959436616036.pdf
This complaint makes it very clear that the image he uploaded to Kik was indeed sexually explicit, depicting adult penetration of a prepubescent female.  In other words, this guy has one sick mind, and has destroyed his own career.

Mike Wuerthele said:

entropys said:

It doesn’t help when people are confused about what this does. But it also doesn’t help when people ignore what it does because “Think of the children!!” Like this article.

Bottom line, is it has created a mechanism to identify people that have a list of specified imagery on their phone.  Kiddie fiddlers to start, who could argue against that? Next up imagery that a less liberal government doesn’t like.  And I mean liberal in the traditional sense, not the type the big brother acolytes in America who have usurped that term have claimed.

and now Apple can’t back down despite the considerable blow back.  Because “Won’t someone think of the children!!” McGuffin to implement it has Apple trapped like a fly in amber.

but it can’t claim it protects your privacy anymore.

Considering that unless you have this material on your iPhone, the company still doesn't have any information at all about your photos, it absolutely can.

What this article does is ignore hypothetical situations that are being used by folks. What this article also does is discuss how the system doesn't do anything like what the German journalists (who use Gmail accounts, by the way) claim it does. What it does not do is validate your opinion on the matter, and that's fine -- but not a shortcoming in any way.

Apple has already bent their policies to China’s will, and will continue to do so.  What IS hypothetical is to say “I’ll bet this or that happens.”  What is NOT hypothetical is to note that China and other countries have already bent Apple to their own will on Apple Maps, privacy issues (servers have to be physically in China, where government can physically access them), etc.  Is it more hypothetical to say that China WILL demand abuse of these new capabilities?  Or more hypothetical to say that they won’t?  This will open a door that can’t easily be closed.  No amount of gaslighting is going to make intelligent people believe otherwise.

I agree that this move by Apple is shocking!  No matter what their initial intentions, surveillance in my pocket, on my private device, is an abhorrent idea.  They tried to make it sound MORE private because it all too place on the device, when the opposite is true.  As many have pointed out, this technology could be used to scan for ANYTHING.  It definitely smacks of Orwellian potential, with Apple installing the first tool of the New Order Thought Police.

mike1 said:

frayapple said:

Sorry. If they launch without Touch ID Apple can kiss post-pandemic sales bye-bye. Calls to warrant masks again make it important as ever. I’ll jump to an Android. 

Oh, please. Give it a rest. Will not affect sales one iota.

It's a minor annoyance to enter a passcode when you are wearing a mask and it goes away all together if you have an Apple Watch. Many people will still only wear a mask for a small portion of the day. Enjoy your Android device.

I’m a physician working in a Covid ICU, and I can tell you that Covid again has gotten as bad as it was near the beginning of the year, and getting worse by the day.  For me at least, masks aren’t going away, at work or in public.

Initially, it was slightly painful to have to enter my password every single time I used the phone because Face ID wouldn’t work.  However, with the Apple Watch, it’s now mostly seamless.

I agree with the above poster.  Enjoy your Android device.  You will just make the wait for my new iPhone slightly shorter.

ArchStanton said:

applesauce007 said:

Amazing!
An iPhone is recovered in working conditions after a year under water and all we want to talk about are comdoms in a safe from a brothel?
Apple insider should switch to being a gossip site.  LOL

It's called thread hijack. Standard tactic, move the germane or positive point away to something inane or negative. First several posts: a few drops of water kill an iPhone (that's a whopper) then condoms and brothels. 
Great read on a website devoted to uncovering these tactics. It's an eye opener. 

You guys are weird…