I am all for aggressive detection and elimination of these kinds of predators but will it take a turn for the worse as the power hungry repurpose it to eliminate others?
Ever since the reveal of government surveillance came out almost a decade ago, encryption has become a thing. Encrypted communications, drives, and whole operating systems. Governments have won some cases and lost others, wanting to gain access to people's phones' encryption keys if a crime is suspected.
They used to have to first prove that a crime was being committed. Then they were able to get a warrant to look at the extent of and participants in the crime. The word "the" signifies "the one that the judge signed off on" as a target for further investigation.
The government is still struggling to get their mitts on data without warrants, the kind that is supposed to be private, the data that people have encrypted. I had a few thoughts after watching this as it relates to Apple caving in to zero pressure from anybody really.
They will be scanning peoples' phones for images of children in compromising positions or exploitation. Never mind that degenerates have been trolling the twittersphere to find plenty of that. Forget about productions like Cuties on Netflix for more abuse of the vulnerable. Apple will just have an algorithm dip on into your pictures, the ones beneath the encryption, and will flag any that meet a certain criteria, a non-public criteria, and all of this in the noble cause of catching the perverts. Of course, everyone will be cheering what starts out as a fix for that horrible problem. But if they were so interested in getting rid of those kinds of people, they would have done something with Hunter Biden who has stored outrageously hideous pictures and videos on his laptop, the one that those in the New York police department have seen and that the FBI has had in their possession for nearly two years now. To me their lack of interest in pursuing the origin of those images is tantamount to "aiding and abetting" of the same.
Logic tells us that they are not interested in finding any politicians, queens, princes, or dukes with highly questionable materials on their mobile devices. More likely they are looking for people who have it in order to control and blackmail by means of what they find.
My opinion is this. If that is their stated goal, getting rid of sickos who have this material, first prove to us that you are really against those dirtbags by acting on evidence which you currently possess, make it public, and hang those individuals responsible for it. Then I will believe the pretense with which you are planning to invade every single law abiding citizens' right to privacy.
Privacy is important.
What if they get into your encrypted drive on whatever grounds. What if they thought you had something bad but it turned out to be nothing. What if it was a mistake. But at the same time, while they are in there, they run across your crypto wallet seed or private key. One look is enough. One snap-shot with a cell phone would allow them to spend all your money.
So, you are a coder and you have been working on a ground breaking app that will surely make you a billion dollars. Because all code starts out as text, your code is found on one of these fishing expeditions and you lose 5 years worth of development as someone else compiles it and sells it.
So you are working on a cutting edge battery technology, so much for that idea.
So your latest ad campaign gets stolen and the competition gets the jump on you publishing your ideas as their own.
Oops, you had an affair and now some unknown friend of an Apple employee is blackmailing you.
What if they find that you believe in God? What if they deem you to be a Jew? A Christian?
What if they do not want you speaking because you are a Democrat. A Republican? Or even worse, a Trump supporter! Maybe your files reveal that you do not buy the pandemic story? What if you do not want to take the RNA shot? Everyone has been screaming about diversity for the last ten years but at the same time, diversity of thoughts in the public square has been shot down by on-line platforms as well as police in the actual public square.
If having your money stolen is not bad enough, maybe losing your job or being dragged out of your home and beaten for your political opinions will convince you not to give any more ground to the same people who are NOT worried about our health or well being, let alone that of our children.
Matthew Green spoke to Naomi Brockwell on this same topic. There are reasons for our rights and the protections thereof, including "right to privacy"!
Have a listen!