this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2024
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Privacy

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With the recent WWDC apple made some bold claims about privacy when it comes to so called Apple Intelligence. This makes me wonder if they did something to what Microsoft did with Recall feature, would people be less concerned and to an extend praise their effort?

Do you trust apple with their claims?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

They already did, Spotlight is Machiavelli behind the “walled garden”

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 47 points 3 months ago (16 children)

Apple's PR is better. With Microsoft all news titles were like "OMG Windows will take screenshots of all you do and send it to AI", and with Apple it's more like "Apple is carefully adding AI to their products, respecting user privacy as they always have been".

Of course, when one looks into technical details they would find that MS Recall is strictly local and runs only on special hardware that people don't even have yet.

Apple Intelligence does send your data to cloud and scans everything you have in Apple ecosystem, not just screenshots. Of course they say it's done in very privacy respecting ways, and provide a lot of technical information to back this claim. But at the end it's closed source and is subject to change at any time.

Having said that, Apple users are used to and value that Apple magically takes care of everything, so they are happy to pay premium for Apple's products whatever the company does.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

apple fanboys. yes. the take it or leave it apple types would likely have a decent exodus. non apple users would not like but would not matter.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago

I think the people who already really like Apple would be okay with it and find a million reasons to justify it. I don't think that's a good thing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

You got me at trust

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

You're saying this like Micro$hit isn't just going to revert back to recall being opt-out (or non-removable) in a few weeks after the outrage dies down

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

People.would be okay by getting fucked to death with a splintery rake if apple charged $999.99 for it.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

yes lol. have you ever talked to apple fanboys? its a cult where the corporation can't possibly be wrong.

they would justify with flimsy justifications and hold their ground that its actually the best use of ai just yet.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No. The whole world turned against them in 2021 (I think?) when they were gonna have on-device monitoring for CSAM. They'd get run over by a bus for this too, same as MS.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It was a scan during upload to their cloud photos system. Everyone else does it on their servers, Apple was going to run the scan before so they didn’t have to ever have them. To not have images scanned before upload, a user would just not have to use their cloud photos service.

The messaging was really badly handled. They almost certainly just scan all the same photos on their servers instead now.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

In my opinion the problem is not who would agree/disagree with it, its more like the fanbase and marketing is on another level and most people would just not care as long as they have the latest iPhone with the latest buzzword functions and features.

I feel people are more forgiving towards apple. I dont have any study or anything to back it up, just can't see why the die-hard userbase of the most isolated and curated ecosystem would care about anything.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Don't care if it's Apple, M$ or Google - non of them should do it that way.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago

I'm not sure I would use a open source Linux version of Recall, I think it would be like always sharing/streaming your desktop, so I think .bash_history is enough recall for me.

I would also allow an open source version of Co-Pilot because the AI snooping only happens within a single program.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago

Not your keys, not safe encryption. As simple as that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I would trust them more than Microsoft because at least they would actually store it encrypted safely and not just basic ACLs that are easy to bypass.

Even with a root shell on macOS you can't bypass certain things like access to the camera for example. You'd have to work way harder to access recall data, not in a way that malware can trivially access.

I still wouldn't use it though, because I think the whole thing is dumb and I don't need my computer to spy on me so I can remember what I did yesterday. I have browser/shell history for that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I don't think Apple is planning that. For now they're trying the approach to expose metadata like email headers to their AI, but that such data has been already accessible to the search functionality anyway.

It's very different from Recall, which dumps screen capture of webpages and passwords into a database file that's only protected by access rights.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (3 children)

That brings me to a recent discovery:

I got a text via matrix, my notifications dont show content, yet the „places“ app suggested a route to an address given in the message.

I checked and had no appointment or other text which the app could have read it from.

This suggests to me two things: apple is reading our screens already, our governments do as well.

Can someone confirm or deny?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

It's weird to assume that OS doesn't "read" the notification content, because how else would it categorize them by priority, and provide smart replies and stuff.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

That's the whole reason why I disabled the notifications for Lemmy app.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for offering your opinion. I find it weird to assume the worst at all times yet here we are.

My point is that it makes zero sense to use encryption on iOS devices at all if they read your stuff anyway, no?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Not really, it can make sense. By "reading" your messages/notifications they could just perform semantic search/categorization, or now, run a local LLM. It doesn't necessarily mean they send that data to servers or make people actually read it.
Encryption just means the data stored on your device is not saved in plaintext. So if somebody gets their hands on your phone, they won't be able to hot-wire the memory chip and directly read all the data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

We have a misunderstanding here. I know that encryption as a whole will do that. But using anything else than imessage for example or whatsapp makes no sense if they can read it anyway. No point in using matrix, threema, signal and whatever. I need to get rid of this phone.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If it's the encrypted transfer protocols that you're talking about, then it's just for the transfer of data. It was never meant to make things secure on the endpoints. Encrypting your whatsapps, signals and so on just ensures the ISPs and mobile operators can't read your messages. Also prevents an occasional MITM attack. Once the data reaches your device it's not encrypted anymore, as you can read it and copy it.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Can't neither but it's sooo easy to achieve with telemetry.

Your friend searched for the place. Your friend send you (any) message. Anyone and their mother know you are affiliated with your friend. Said place is now connected with you.

That's why telemetry doesn't need to read your screen

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Apple has been trying to be the next advertising giant. They’ve been growing their advertising revenue and plan on doubling it this year. They went from $4b ad revenue to $7.5 2022/2023. And if you remember correctly, that was right when you started seeing all their “apple cares about your privacy!” ads and got into it with Facebook. They’re not out here to protect our privacy. They’re trying to take the advertising revenue from the other ad giants and corner that market for themselves.

Think about it. They have gotten people locked into their OS/ecosystem. They basically hold the advertising golden ticket. They’re not here to make your digital life more private. They’re here to get your data for themselves, locking out the competition. They aim to bring more people into the gate and shut it behind them while extracting all of our advertising milk with their more advanced data udder sucking machine. The pasture looks nice, but when those gates close, the skies darken and the farmer corners you with that look in his eye.

I don’t know where that metaphor came from. But that’s how I see it in my head. The moo cow with the pretty eyelashes and the shiny bell around her neck is pulled into a false sense of security by the smiling farmer at the gate, but that shit turns dark real quick when she’s locked in.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Apple fans and people that fall for their slick marketing would

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's closed source, so no way in hell

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Apple fanboys would.. other people I don't think so..

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