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] 134 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I would love this this feature to be implemented in IOS. This could be used for several applications like pushing more people to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 4 months ago

You had us in the first half, NGL

[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (16 children)

Do I trust them? Sure, I guess, when it comes to privacy from other entities.

Do I trust that I will have privacy from Apple? Hell no. What does "local" even mean on an iCloud connected iOS device anymore? Because there's nothing on that phone Apple can't access remotely if they want to, and if any of the AI cache is backed up on iCloud, that's not local anymore.

Do I trust them with the data they're absolutely gathering? No, but I don't trust anyone with it. But I also think that data would be relatively safer with Apple than their competitors.

If Apple announced Recall? Apple wouldn't announce Recall, that's the whole point. Apple wouldn't be so brazen and stupid to push a tool that is so obviously invasive and so poorly implemented. Apple earned its trust by not making those mistakes.

But if they did decide to say fuck it and implement something like Recall, of course people would trust them. That's what trust means: consumers take them at their word. But if it's as bad as Microsoft's Recall, Apple would burn all that trust when people found out.

People don't believe Microsoft because they have long since burned any trust and good will for most of their consumers. They have proven time and time again they don't give a shit about users' wants or needs, and users have felt that. So when they announce Recall, they have no earned trust. No one believes their assurances. There's no good faith to cushion this. And it turns out everyone was right not to grant them that trust.

Does that mean I'd ever use an Apple device? Hell no. I value my privacy, but I value it on my terms, not Apple's, and I will never use a device that creates privacy through taking power from the user.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (4 children)

Apple now has encrypted iCloud backups so they can’t see what you backup to them. GrapheneOS is obviously better but for an off the shelf OS ios ain’t bad.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 4 months ago (2 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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

As far as we know, apple's system does not take screenshots automatically, storing them unencrypted, likely revealing secrets to other programs.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (12 children)

Makes a lot of sense until the closed source affirmation. The source code of the OS they develop is closed source, but a lot of what they do is open source and independantly audited by experts, so there's that in the balance.

Windows is just a pile of trash.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 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] 24 points 4 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] 22 points 4 months ago

I'm sure we wouldn't stop hearing about how it was the right decision even if we weren't having a conversation about it.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago

Everyone suckles Apple's dick. Friends of mine were talking as if Microsoft has ended security and privacy, but are lapping up the Apple Intelligence crap

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago

Do you trust apple with their claims?

No. I inherently distrust trillion dolllar tech companies in poorly regulated economies. They are able to get away with a lot of crap and they know it. That's how the Cult of Apple works. I would not be surprised when they violate their own privacy policy knowingly and structurally.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 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 4 months ago* (last edited 4 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] 20 points 4 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 4 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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[–] Ilandar 19 points 4 months ago

"People" would be, yes. Apple is continuously praised by its rabid fans for engaging in anti-consumer practices disguised as "courage" or "security". There will always be a very vocal group who believe it is the greatest, most humane and ethical company on the planet. Whether the same people who criticised Microsoft would be criticising Apple is another question.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (11 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] 20 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 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] 6 points 4 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

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 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] 15 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Apple at least tries to explain what is happening, and while not always great, you feel you understand why they are doing something or implementing new functionality unlike Windows who just dumps this shit on you without your consent and then you have to learn 5 years later that they put absolutely no thought in why they were doing, especially thinking about your privacy. Anyway, I use Arch, btw. ~/s~

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's closed source, so no way in hell

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Apple fans and people that fall for their slick marketing would

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Apple fans would

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 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] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I found it really weird too, Microsoft pushing Recall, an AI feature, vs Apple pushing Apple Intelligence, an AI feature.. and only Microsoft got backfired.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Recall was set to be default on for everybody and to record everything in a database which is trivial to extract data from.

There's a lot of nonsense Apple is doing too (like the chatgpt integration) but they didn't put keylogger into the system.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago (3 children)

One records your every moment and was instantly exploited to get every piece of data you ever saw and the other does things when you ask it too and asks you before sending data off device. These are clearly exactly the same thing.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No, but if a linux distro implemented a local-only version of this, I would be interested in using it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

I honestly don't understand the use case. What do you find interesting about it?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

My memory isn't perfect, it would be nice to have a second set of eyes, and I could describe things to it aside from knowing the exact words. "What was that website I visited within the last six months where I played an online game that was like snake but different?" or "What was that cryptocurrency i was researching which was touting it had perfect forward secrecy?" "Who was I emailing about the football game" etc.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I never bought any Apple product and thought they were overhyped, so it might be easy enough for me to say, but no, I personally wouldn't have been Ok with it.

I can see more people begrudgingly using it if Apple did it though.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Nope, but I also feel like Apple would have it off by default, unlike Microsoft.

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