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Having images on your phone, be they real or engineered false matches, is not the issue. Apple says that the algorithm will only be invoked when you try to upload the image to iCloud. I'm guessing you might have twigged what's happening before you try that.

Even if you did upload multiple false matches (and that means you're saving random images that are really not very likely to be useful) the human moderator that then inspects them will soon realise that they are only false positives.

If you trust Apple to describe how this mechanism works then it's only transfers to iCloud that are inspected and the hashes on your phone are NOT images, just mathematical fingerprints. If you don't trust Apple then just consider all the other stuff on your phone: maybe it's time to try Android?

I'm disappointed that Apple is doing this, mostly because I like some refuge from adverts but also because it's another differentiator gone. Apple rising above such things as self-advertising was part of the appeal of the "different" thinkers.

melgross said:

Eric_WVGG said:

melgross said:

But it seems they solved the problem with, what else, a new chip.

That doesn't make any sense though, the chip doesn't matter, what counts is the signal it's sending. But I wouldn't put it past any tech company to get sort of hand-wavey and call "a secure signal running on an obscure non-wifi/bluetooth piece of open spectrum with a custom antenna" a "new chip," especially if it happens to be on a chip that is new (even if that's the least relevant piece of the equation).

Why doesn’t it make sense? At the present AI=tion they said that they developed a new chip for the keyboard that was encrypted, so it would send an encrypted signal to the computer.

your post doesn’t make sense. You seem to contradict yourself. We all know Apple develops its own chips, and that they develop specialized chips for particular functions. They developed the Secure Enclave and it’s software too, remember. So here, they developed a chip to recognize your fingerprint, using their own touched technology, that then encrypts the data, and sends an encrypted signal to the computer. Seems pretty logical.

It's the blend of hardware and software that's usually the key(!). The signal on the RF (wireless) has to be created somehow.

Secure Enclave is both hardware and software (It has its own processor and hardware protection on its memory access). The keyboard likely needed a crypto chip because the processing load would overwhelm any processor that you would sensibly put in a keyboard - both in the computation and the drain it would place on the batteries.

FB says that collecting this data is important for showing ad buyers how their ads are performing. So we should expect that data to be destroyed after a few days because it's no longer relevant and, in the meantime, to be firewalled from other data about users because it has been collected without their knowledge or permission?

No, I didn't think so either.

In principle, making devices more repairable and upgradeable will make them more expensive, bigger, heavier and less reliable (due to extra internal connectors, access panels and who knows what); that in turn makes them less desirable. If it is a worthwhile goal then it needs research to mitigate/remove those disadvantages. So the manufacturers must be motivated to fund and execute that research.

Why would the manufacturers spend money creating less desirable products? Without consumer pressure, that will have to be done through legislation, which will also create a level playing field for manufacturers (so no individual manufacturer could decide not to do it and thereby gain an advantage). For a similar example, think catalysts on cars: they are expensive items and the industry initially saw all sorts of undesirable consequences (eg increased fuel consumption). Legislation forced innovation and now we all have them and, I guess, rarely even think about them.

So perhaps governments should stop criticising manufacturers and frame some new regulations to steer them in the desired direction. It might even contribute to saving the planet.