In computer security it always depends on your thread model. WhatsApp is supposed to be end-to-end-encrypted, so nobody can intercept your messages. However: Once someone flags a message as inappropriate, this gets circumvented and messages get forwarded to Meta. This is only supposed to happen if it’s flagged. So unlikely in a family group. I trust this actually works the way Meta tells us, though I can’t be sure because I haven’t dissected the app and this may change in the future. And there is lawful intercept.
Mind that people can download or screenshot messages and forward them or do whatever they like with the pictures.
And another thing: If you have Sync enabled, Google Photos will sync pictures you take with their cloud servers and it’ll end up there. And Apple does the same with their iCloud. As far as I know both platforms automatically scan pictures to help fight crime and child exploitation. We aren’t allowed to know how those algorithms work in detail. I doubt a toddler in clothes or wrapped in a blanket will trigger the automatism. They claim a ‘high level of accuracy’. But people generally advise not to take pictures of children without clothes with a smartphone. Bad incidents have already happened.
Edit: Apple seems to have pushed for cloud scanning initially, but currently that doesn’t happen any more. They have some on device filters as far as I understand.
As far as I know both platforms automatically scan pictures to help fight crime and child exploitation.
Apple doesn’t. They should but they don’t. They came up with a really clever system that would do the actual scanning on your device immediately before uploading to iCloud, so their servers would never need to analyze your photos, but people went insane after they announced the plan.
Oh. I didn’t know that. I don’t use Apple products and just read the news, I must have missed how the story turned out, so thanks for the info.
Technically I suppose it doesn’t make a huge difference. It still gets scanned by Apple software. And sent to them if it’s deemed conspicuous. And the algorithm on a device is probably limited by processing power and energy budget. So it might even be less accurate. But this is just my speculation. I think all of that is more of a marketing stunt. This way the provider reduces cost, they don’t need additional servers to filter the messages and in the end it doesn’t really matter where exactly the content is processed if it’s a continuous chain like in the Apple ecosystem.
The last story I linked about the dad being incriminated for sending the doctor a picture would play out the same way, regardless.
Edit: I googled it and it seems the story with Apple has changed multiple times. The last article I read says they don’t even do on-device scanning. Just a ‘nude filter’. Whatever that is. I’m cautious around cloud services anyways. And all of that might change and also affect old pictures. We just avoided mandatory content filtering in the EU and upload filters and things like that are debated regularly. Also the US has updated their laws regarding internet crime and prevention of child exploitation in the last years. I’m generally unsure where we’re headed with this.
The proposal was only for photos stored on iCloud. Apple has a legitimate interest in not wanting to actually host abuse material on their servers. The plan was also calibrated for one in one trillion false positives (it would require multiple matches before an account could be flagged), followed by a manual review by an employee before reporting to authorities. It was so very carefully designed.
Do you happen to know a good source for information on this? I don’t want to highjack this discission, since it’s not that closely related to the original subject… But I’d be interested in more technical information. Most news articles seem to be a bit biased and I get it, both privacy and protection of children are sensible topics and there are feelings envolved.
One in a trillion sounds like a probability of a hash collision. So that would be just checking if they already have the specific image in their database. It’ll trigger if someone downloaded an already existing image and not detect new images taken with a camera. I’m somewhat fine with that.
And I was under the impression that iPhones connected to the iCloud sync the pictures per default? So “only for photos stored on iCloud” would practically mean every image you take, unless you deliberately changed the settings on your iPhone?
In computer security it always depends on your thread model. WhatsApp is supposed to be end-to-end-encrypted, so nobody can intercept your messages. However: Once someone flags a message as inappropriate, this gets circumvented and messages get forwarded to Meta. This is only supposed to happen if it’s flagged. So unlikely in a family group. I trust this actually works the way Meta tells us, though I can’t be sure because I haven’t dissected the app and this may change in the future. And there is lawful intercept.
Mind that people can download or screenshot messages and forward them or do whatever they like with the pictures.
And another thing: If you have Sync enabled, Google Photos will sync pictures you take with their cloud servers and it’ll end up there.
And Apple does the same with their iCloud.As far as I know both platforms automatically scan pictures to help fight crime and child exploitation. We aren’t allowed to know how those algorithms work in detail. I doubt a toddler in clothes or wrapped in a blanket will trigger the automatism. They claim a ‘high level of accuracy’. But people generally advise not to take pictures of children without clothes with a smartphone. Bad incidents have already happened.Edit: Apple seems to have pushed for cloud scanning initially, but currently that doesn’t happen any more. They have some on device filters as far as I understand.
Apple doesn’t. They should but they don’t. They came up with a really clever system that would do the actual scanning on your device immediately before uploading to iCloud, so their servers would never need to analyze your photos, but people went insane after they announced the plan.
Oh. I didn’t know that. I don’t use Apple products and just read the news, I must have missed how the story turned out, so thanks for the info.
Technically I suppose it doesn’t make a huge difference. It still gets scanned by Apple software. And sent to them if it’s deemed conspicuous. And the algorithm on a device is probably limited by processing power and energy budget. So it might even be less accurate. But this is just my speculation. I think all of that is more of a marketing stunt. This way the provider reduces cost, they don’t need additional servers to filter the messages and in the end it doesn’t really matter where exactly the content is processed if it’s a continuous chain like in the Apple ecosystem.
The last story I linked about the dad being incriminated for sending the doctor a picture would play out the same way, regardless.
Edit: I googled it and it seems the story with Apple has changed multiple times. The last article I read says they don’t even do on-device scanning. Just a ‘nude filter’. Whatever that is. I’m cautious around cloud services anyways. And all of that might change and also affect old pictures. We just avoided mandatory content filtering in the EU and upload filters and things like that are debated regularly. Also the US has updated their laws regarding internet crime and prevention of child exploitation in the last years. I’m generally unsure where we’re headed with this.
The proposal was only for photos stored on iCloud. Apple has a legitimate interest in not wanting to actually host abuse material on their servers. The plan was also calibrated for one in one trillion false positives (it would require multiple matches before an account could be flagged), followed by a manual review by an employee before reporting to authorities. It was so very carefully designed.
Do you happen to know a good source for information on this? I don’t want to highjack this discission, since it’s not that closely related to the original subject… But I’d be interested in more technical information. Most news articles seem to be a bit biased and I get it, both privacy and protection of children are sensible topics and there are feelings envolved.
One in a trillion sounds like a probability of a hash collision. So that would be just checking if they already have the specific image in their database. It’ll trigger if someone downloaded an already existing image and not detect new images taken with a camera. I’m somewhat fine with that.
And I was under the impression that iPhones connected to the iCloud sync the pictures per default? So “only for photos stored on iCloud” would practically mean every image you take, unless you deliberately changed the settings on your iPhone?