Apple and privacy (2013 2021)

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Apple and Privacy (2013 to 2021)

A lot of info is needed here.

See the events leading up to 2013 by clicking/tapping here

Apple was caught red handed with its PRISM program membership, but Apple continued to try and boast privacy through their proprietary software.

In 2013, Apple refused to unlock the iPhone of the surviving bomber from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The FBI was upset with Apples non-compliance, but the FBI managed to break the encryption in 2016 and get access to data on the phone, after 3 straight years of brute force attempts.

Throughout the releases of iOS 11 to iOS 14, Apple introduced changes to give warnings when trying to open privacy invading apps, such as Facebook. This caused massive upset and Facebook threatened to take their app off the Apple App store. They didn't, as they would lose far more users if that was done.

In 2021, Apple had another big fallout regarding their iCloud platform. Click/tap here to continue

The page is not available yet, as there is no end goal in site, so I will list it here for now:

Apple and privacy (2021-present)

In 2021 August, Apple announced a change to the content management of iCloud. I have a response to it that is 2 part: 1 with Apples message with bad context, and the other with Apples message, and better context.

THIS SECTION IS OUTDATED

Today, I learned of something stupid Apple did. They are now scanning all iCloud media for child abuse content. Now you are probably asking, how is that bad? Don’t you hate child abuse? Yes I do, but there is a massive flaw with this: algorithms aren’t that good yet. When I was using OneDrive, it had such poor recognition of everyday objects that it was incredibly laughable. Applying this filter is like using Google Translate to pass a PhD College exam in Esperanto, It isn’t accurate enough. I think that Apple should still try this, but they shouldn’t pull a Google/YouTube and leave everything to the machine, there needs to be people checking the incidents of child abuse to make sure it isn’t someone doing something innocent like recording videos of a fish that the algorithm may think is of someone dropkicking a child down the stairs, as the algorithm really can be that bad. Imagine taking a picture of a burrito and uploading it to iCloud, then having the FBI come and arrest you and take away your children, because the algorithm was that bad. Algorithms are easily fooled. YouTube is a very primary example of this.

The problem: leaving it to the machines

The solution: have a real person or a team of people (if a single person can't be trusted) verify each claim of child abuse to make sure the algorithm isn't sending an innocent person to prison

This section was last updated on August 5th 2021 at 11:29 pm

DETADTUO SI NOITCES SIHT

I am keeping this section until I can document it better, the situation is worse than expected. I wasn't aware enough of this, and I know that this is a bad thing, and that Apple is falling on its small privacy platform, which was never really very legitimate due to the majority of Apple software being proprietary. This is yet another example of the "Think of the Children" argument, where emotions are evoked as children are used as scapegoats, so that Apple can take away user freedom without much setback. This strategy has unfortunately worked many times ever since the September 11th 2001 attacks, but luckily, society seems to be figuring this out, as it wasn't received well by the privacy community and people outside of the privacy community. Facebook even had the audacity to make an announcement that they oppose this, while good, they are in absolutely no position to say anything, and they are trying to look like the good guys by taking advantage of a weakened Apple.

This is Apple performing what is called damage control they know that if they were just caught doing this, it would create a much bigger controversy. Because they did it like this, it created a controversy, but unfortunately, people are likely to forget about it and move on.

This article is a stub and needs expansion.

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Sources

Nil

More sources needed, Wikipedia should not be the only source. Wikipedia is not supposed to be used as a source, and other sources are needed.

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Notes

Article needs lots of improvement.

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Article info

Written on: 2021 Sunday September 19th at 3:43 pm

Last revised on: 2021 Sunday September 19th at 3:43 pm

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Article version: 1 (2021 Sunday September 19th at 3:43 pm)

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