There’s a crack in the iPhone foundation and it could get a lot worse
I take issue with most of the alarmism about this CSAM scanning. Not because I think our devices scanning our content is okay, but because of the implication that there&#x27;s <i>now</i> a slippery slope that didn&#x27;t exist before. For example, from the article:<p>&gt; While today it has been purpose-built for CSAM, and it can be deactivated simply by shutting off iCloud Photo Library syncing, it still feels like a line has been crossed<p>Two simple facts:<p>(1) The system, as described today, isn&#x27;t any more invasive then the existing CSAM scanning technologies that exist on all major cloud storage systems (arguably it&#x27;s less invasive - no external systems look at your photos unless your phone flags enough of your photos as CSAM, which brings it to a manual review stage)<p>(2) Auto-updating root-level proprietary software can be updated to any level of invasion of privacy at any time for any reason the provider wishes. We aren&#x27;t any closer to full-invasion-of-privacy with iPhone than we were before; it is and always has been one single update away. In fact, we don&#x27;t know if it&#x27;s already there on iPhone or any other proprietary system such as Windows, Chromebook, etc. Who knows what backdoors exist on these systems?<p>If you truly believe that you need full control and a system you fully trust, don&#x27;t get a device that runs proprietary software. If you&#x27;re okay with a device that isn&#x27;t fully trustworthy, but appears to be benevolent, then iPhone isn&#x27;t any worse than it was a month ago.<p>Until there&#x27;s evidence otherwise, iPhone will continue to be as trustworthy as any other proprietary closed-source system. If you need more than that, please contribute to projects that aim to produce a modern, functional FOSS smartphone.