There are so many things wrong with this article, but the most relevant thing: the EULA contains plenty of consent you give upon agreeing and so do the features

There are so many things wrong with this article, but the most relevant thing: the EULA contains plenty of consent you give upon agreeing and so do the features with their own data exchange sheets that you have to act on before using the feature (at least the first time). Besides that, same as posted elsewhere: mediaanalysisd has existed for a pretty long time and doesn't require iCloud, an AppleID or CSAM scanning to exist. Fun fact: the binary in its many revisions still has an embedded plist with a copyright of 2015 in all currently supported OS releases.