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Apple does photo recognition on your device. Google, on the other hand, uploads photos to their server and does the analysis there. There is the infamous case

Apple does photo recognition on your device. Google, on the other hand, uploads photos to their server and does the analysis there. There is the infamous case of the parents who Google tried to have arrested after they used their Android device to seek medical assistance for their child during lockdown. Their doctor asked them to send images of the problem, and Google called the police and reported the parents for kiddie porn. > “I knew that these companies were watching and that privacy is not what we would hope it to be,” Mark said. “But I haven’t done anything wrong.” The police agreed. Google did not. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveil... Google refused to return access to his account even after the police cleared him of wrongdoing.

zombot 2y ago
> Apple does photo recognition on your device. If that were true, the whole homomorphic encryption stuff would be pointless.
throw10920 2y ago
> Google refused to return access to his account even after the police cleared him of wrongdoing. This is why I constantly work to help people reduce their dependence on Google. Screw that. If anyone ever tells you that they rely on Google for anything, show them this article.
- brokenmachine 2y ago
  I don't want to set up my own email server. But I definitely live in fear of Google fucking up and disabling my account.
jchw 2y ago
Google's reputation with privacy advocates is absolutely horrible, but that shouldn't have anything to do with Apple's practices. Comparing Apple and Google will indeed tell you a lot of interesting things, but that's not what this is about.
lern_too_spel 2y ago
Google doesn't send your pictures to their servers without your explicit consent. This is exactly what users expect. On Android, you can use your own self-hosted photos server and have it work exactly the same way Google Photos does. Google Photos does not have access to private Google-only APIs like Apple Photos has on iOS.
- GeekyBear 2y ago
  > Google doesn't send your pictures to their servers without your explicit consent. The parents Google tried to get arrested in the story above do not agree. > When Mark’s and Cassio’s photos were automatically uploaded from their phones to Google’s servers, this technology flagged them. Jon Callas of the E.F.F. called the scanning intrusive, saying a family photo album on someone’s personal device should be a “private sphere.” (A Google spokeswoman said the company scans only when an “affirmative action” is taken by a user; that includes when the user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud.) Google not only automatically uploaded their images to their server, it analyzed those images and reported the users to the police for kiddie porn based on a single false positive.
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    > user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud. I never enable cloud backups, because it means my shit is sent somewhere.
    - GeekyBear 2y ago
      You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default. Then they proceed to claim those automatic backups are an "affirmative action" that justifies them scanning the contents of your images as well.
      - fauigerzigerk 2y ago
        >You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default. When setting up a new phone (and many times thereafter) they prompt you to enable photos backup. It's not on by default if I remember correctly.
derefr 2y ago
Kind of feels like it should be a crime for a private party to attempt to write terms into a contract that introduce punishments justified in terms of law, where that justification is based on an interpretation of law that's already been legally proven to the author of the contract to be a misinterpretation of said law. It's sort of the crime of "contempt of court", but after the fact: receiving a judge's prescription about how you must interpret a law during a case, but then going right back to using a different interpretation when you leave court.
diggan 2y ago
> Apple does photo recognition on your device. > Google, on the other hand, uploads photos to their server and does the analysis there. The comment you're replying to (and the whole sub-thread in fact) isn't about if how Apple is doing it is the best/worst way, but rather before they do it, they don't ask for permission. Regardless of how they technically do it, the fact that they don't ask beforehand is what is being argued about here.
- x0xrx 2y ago
  It seems strange to demand they ask “permission” in this instance but not e.g. to let you sort you photos by date, or album, or location. (I agree this is the point in contention, I just don’t understand it).

zombot 2y ago

> Apple does photo recognition on your device. If that were true, the whole homomorphic encryption stuff would be pointless.

throw10920 2y ago

> Google refused to return access to his account even after the police cleared him of wrongdoing. This is why I constantly work to help people reduce their dependence on Google. Screw that. If anyone ever tells you that they rely on Google for anything, show them this article.

brokenmachine 2y ago
I don't want to set up my own email server. But I definitely live in fear of Google fucking up and disabling my account.

jchw 2y ago

Google's reputation with privacy advocates is absolutely horrible, but that shouldn't have anything to do with Apple's practices. Comparing Apple and Google will indeed tell you a lot of interesting things, but that's not what this is about.

lern_too_spel 2y ago

Google doesn't send your pictures to their servers without your explicit consent. This is exactly what users expect. On Android, you can use your own self-hosted photos server and have it work exactly the same way Google Photos does. Google Photos does not have access to private Google-only APIs like Apple Photos has on iOS.

GeekyBear 2y ago
> Google doesn't send your pictures to their servers without your explicit consent. The parents Google tried to get arrested in the story above do not agree. > When Mark’s and Cassio’s photos were automatically uploaded from their phones to Google’s servers, this technology flagged them. Jon Callas of the E.F.F. called the scanning intrusive, saying a family photo album on someone’s personal device should be a “private sphere.” (A Google spokeswoman said the company scans only when an “affirmative action” is taken by a user; that includes when the user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud.) Google not only automatically uploaded their images to their server, it analyzed those images and reported the users to the police for kiddie porn based on a single false positive.
- johnisgood 2y ago
  > user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud. I never enable cloud backups, because it means my shit is sent somewhere.
  - GeekyBear 2y ago
    You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default. Then they proceed to claim those automatic backups are an "affirmative action" that justifies them scanning the contents of your images as well.
    - fauigerzigerk 2y ago
      >You don't have to enable it, since Google backs up your photos to their servers by default. When setting up a new phone (and many times thereafter) they prompt you to enable photos backup. It's not on by default if I remember correctly.

derefr 2y ago

Kind of feels like it should be a crime for a private party to attempt to write terms into a contract that introduce punishments justified in terms of law, where that justification is based on an interpretation of law that's already been legally proven to the author of the contract to be a misinterpretation of said law. It's sort of the crime of "contempt of court", but after the fact: receiving a judge's prescription about how you must interpret a law during a case, but then going right back to using a different interpretation when you leave court.

diggan 2y ago

> Apple does photo recognition on your device. > Google, on the other hand, uploads photos to their server and does the analysis there. The comment you're replying to (and the whole sub-thread in fact) isn't about if how Apple is doing it is the best/worst way, but rather before they do it, they don't ask for permission. Regardless of how they technically do it, the fact that they don't ask beforehand is what is being argued about here.

x0xrx 2y ago
It seems strange to demand they ask “permission” in this instance but not e.g. to let you sort you photos by date, or album, or location. (I agree this is the point in contention, I just don’t understand it).