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> Why haven't I made my whitepaper about PhotoDNA public? In my view, who would it help? It would help bad guys avoid detection and it will help malcontents man

> Why haven't I made my whitepaper about PhotoDNA public? In my view, who would it help? It would help bad guys avoid detection and it will help malcontents manufacture false-positives. The paper won't help NCMEC, ICACs, or related law enforcement. It won't help victims. I have to respectfully disagree with that statement and the train of thought unfortunately. However, you should seek legal counsel before proceeding with anything related: the advice from a stranger on the web. a) You are not in the possession of a mystical secret for some magical curve or lattice. The "bad guys" if they have enough incentive to reverse a compression algorithm (effectively what this is) they will easily do that, if the money is good enough. b) If we followed the same mentality in the cryptography community we would still be using DES or have a broken AES. It is clear from your post that the area requires some serious boost from the community in terms of algorithms and implementations and architectural solutions. By hiding the laundry we are never going to advance. Right now this area is not taken seriously enough as it should by the research community -- one of the reasons also being the huge privacy, and illegal search and seizure concerns and disregard of other areas of law most of my peers have. Material such as yours can help attract attention necessary to the problem and showcase how without the help of the community we end up with problematic and harmful measures such as what you imply. c) I guess you have, but just in the slightest of cases: From what I have read so far and from the implications of the marketing material, I have to advise you to seek legal counsel if you come to the possession of this PhotoDNA material they promised or about your written work. [https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-child-pornography https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-fede...] Similarly for any trained ML model -- although here it is a disaster in progress still.

loves_mangoes 5y ago
I would have agreed with this on principle, assuming motivated actors who are willing to read technical papers on PhotoDNA, keeping it unpublished is only delaying these actors. Although there can be real value in delayed release, secrecy, and obfuscation, that is especially useful if the author can credibly convince NCMEC and other relevant parties to make use of the whitepaper while it is private. If delaying gains little, secrecy is less helpful. Sunlight tends to be the best disinfectant. As it stands, it is hard to judge how much progress is being made behind closed doors to improve PhotoDNA.
gizmo686 5y ago
> Right now this area is not taken seriously enough as it should by the research community Another reason is that basic material needed to conduct this research (child porn) is legally toxic to posses. Sure, there are ways around that for sufficiently motivated researchers. But if you are a CS researcher, you have a lot of research oppurtunities that do not involve any of that risk or overhead.

loves_mangoes 5y ago

I would have agreed with this on principle, assuming motivated actors who are willing to read technical papers on PhotoDNA, keeping it unpublished is only delaying these actors. Although there can be real value in delayed release, secrecy, and obfuscation, that is especially useful if the author can credibly convince NCMEC and other relevant parties to make use of the whitepaper while it is private. If delaying gains little, secrecy is less helpful. Sunlight tends to be the best disinfectant. As it stands, it is hard to judge how much progress is being made behind closed doors to improve PhotoDNA.

gizmo686 5y ago

> Right now this area is not taken seriously enough as it should by the research community Another reason is that basic material needed to conduct this research (child porn) is legally toxic to posses. Sure, there are ways around that for sufficiently motivated researchers. But if you are a CS researcher, you have a lot of research oppurtunities that do not involve any of that risk or overhead.