There is another angle to consider here as well. Before the whole Anti-CSAM debacle, one legitimate concern was that iPhones are more commonly used for CSAM th

There is another angle to consider here as well. Before the whole Anti-CSAM debacle, one legitimate concern was that iPhones are more commonly used for CSAM than other platforms and there was a perception that Apple wasn't doing enough about it. Their stance on privacy was opening them up to attacks by the 'think of the children' types, weakening both its brand and political capacity to withstand pressure to weaken encryption, create backdoors etc. This feature is an impressive counter volley in that space. It doesn't compromise security or privacy of normal users, it's optional and should be reasonably effective. But in creating this, Apple insulates itself from the suggestion it is doing nothing to help protect children. So this feature could actually give Apple a face saving way to discard the creepy Anti-CSAM idea altogether and win it enough clout to keep fighting government pressure generally. It's a net win for privacy. We need to pick our battles and not reflexively go after Apple with 'this is a dry run for on device scanning/police state' type baseless accusations.