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Why would anyone go to the effort of technical concealment[1] of CSAM when they could just resist the urge to import child porn in their phone's photo library i

Why would anyone go to the effort of technical concealment[1] of CSAM when they could just resist the urge to import child porn in their phone's photo library in the first place? I've managed to resist the urge to import regular porn into my photo library, and being caught with regular porn is (at most) embarrassing. It's not potentially life-destroying. It's inconceivable that anyone could desire possession of NCMEC-catalogued CSAM images without being aware that they're risking serious consequences if they're caught. Who wants their deepest, darkest, potentially life-ruining secrets just milling about with photos of the dog and last night's dinner? [1] ...which is all but impossible for an average user to prove was effective; it's not like the Photos app has a "Not Child Porn!" checkmark.

laszlokorte 5y ago
I agree with you in that I do not understand why anybody doing something illegal would upload related data to a cloud storage. But if nobody would import CSAM into their icloud library why do all the pictures need to be scanned in the first place? I would imagine anybody doing major illegal stuff being informed about important measures in order to not be caught.
- simondotau 5y ago
  I agree, why Apple is doing this is an interesting and pertinent question. I don't think it's actually because they think this will put a big dent into CSAM. So the question is: what is motivating Apple? Perhaps it's a prerequisite for deploying end-to-end encryption of iCloud Photo Library and/or iCloud Backups. The latter in particular has remained decryptable by Apple supposedly due to pressure from the FBI. Perhaps CSAM is what the FBI are using to justify their pressure. Perhaps it's because Apple's team of lobbyists are seeing ahead to future anti-privacy, anti-encryption legislation being justified under the guise of CSAM. If Apple can show that the CSAM problem is already "solved" then such justifications disintegrate.

laszlokorte 5y ago

I agree with you in that I do not understand why anybody doing something illegal would upload related data to a cloud storage. But if nobody would import CSAM into their icloud library why do all the pictures need to be scanned in the first place? I would imagine anybody doing major illegal stuff being informed about important measures in order to not be caught.

simondotau 5y ago
I agree, why Apple is doing this is an interesting and pertinent question. I don't think it's actually because they think this will put a big dent into CSAM. So the question is: what is motivating Apple? Perhaps it's a prerequisite for deploying end-to-end encryption of iCloud Photo Library and/or iCloud Backups. The latter in particular has remained decryptable by Apple supposedly due to pressure from the FBI. Perhaps CSAM is what the FBI are using to justify their pressure. Perhaps it's because Apple's team of lobbyists are seeing ahead to future anti-privacy, anti-encryption legislation being justified under the guise of CSAM. If Apple can show that the CSAM problem is already "solved" then such justifications disintegrate.