How to Stop Apple From Scanning Your iPhone Photos
By Timothy Tibbetts |
Apple’s new iPhone photo-scanning feature is a very controversial thing. You might want to consider the only current option to stop Apple from scanning your photos.
Apple's new photo-scanning feature will scan photos stored in iCloud to see whether they match known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The problem with this, like many others, is that we often have hundreds of photos of our children and grandchildren, and who knows how good or bad the new software scanning technology is? Apple claims false positives are one trillion to one, and there is an appeals process in place. That said, one mistake from this AI, just one, could have an innocent person sent to jail and their lives destroyed.
Apple has many other features as part of these upgrades to protect children, and we like them all, but photo-scanning sounds like a problem waiting to happen.
Here are all of the "features" that come with anti-CSAM, expected to roll out with iOS 15 in the fall of 2021.
Messages: The Messages app will use on-device machine learning to warn children and parents about sensitive content.
iCloud Photos: Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes.
Siri and Search: Siri and Search will provide additional resources to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations.
Now that you understand how anti-CSAM works, the only way to avoid having your photos scanned by this system is to disable iCloud Photos. Your photos are scanned when you automatically upload your photos to the cloud, so the only current way to avoid having them scanned is not to upload them.
This adds an interesting problem. The majority of iPhone users use iCloud to back up their photos (and everything else). If you disable iCloud, you will need to back up your photos manually. If you have a PC or Mac, you can always copy them to your computer and back them up. You can also consider using another cloud service for backups.
Let's talk about disabling iCloud and also removing any photos you already have uploaded. You will have 30 days to recover your photos if you change your mind. Any photos that are on your iPhone when iOS 15 is released will be scanned.
You'll want to backup and disable iCloud, then verify that no photos were left on their servers.
Stop Apple From Scanning Your iPhone Photos - Back-Up Photos and Disable iCloud Photos
First, we can disable the uploading of iCloud photos while keeping all other backups, including your contacts, calendars, notes, and more.
Click on Settings.
At the top, click on your name.
Click on iCloud.
Click on Photos.
Uncheck iCloud Photos.
You will be prompted to decide what to do with your current photos.
If you have the space on your phone, you can click on Download Photos & Videos, and your photos will all be on your iPhone, ready to back up somewhere else.
Stop Apple From Scanning Your iPhone Photos - Delete Photos on Server
While all of your photos should be deleted from Apple's server, we should verify that.
Click on Settings.
At the top, click on your name.
Click on iCloud.
Click on Manage Storage.
Click on Photos.
Click on Disable & Delete
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Apple's new photo-scanning feature will scan photos stored in iCloud to see whether they match known Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The problem with this, like many others, is that we often have hundreds of photos of our children and grandchildren, and who knows how good or bad the new software scanning technology is? Apple claims false positives are one trillion to one, and there is an appeals process in place. That said, one mistake from this AI, just one, could have an innocent person sent to jail and their lives destroyed.
Apple has many other features as part of these upgrades to protect children, and we like them all, but photo-scanning sounds like a problem waiting to happen.
Here are all of the "features" that come with anti-CSAM, expected to roll out with iOS 15 in the fall of 2021.
Messages: The Messages app will use on-device machine learning to warn children and parents about sensitive content.
iCloud Photos: Before an image is stored in iCloud Photos, an on-device matching process is performed for that image against the known CSAM hashes.
Siri and Search: Siri and Search will provide additional resources to help children and parents stay safe online and get help with unsafe situations.
Now that you understand how anti-CSAM works, the only way to avoid having your photos scanned by this system is to disable iCloud Photos. Your photos are scanned when you automatically upload your photos to the cloud, so the only current way to avoid having them scanned is not to upload them.
This adds an interesting problem. The majority of iPhone users use iCloud to back up their photos (and everything else). If you disable iCloud, you will need to back up your photos manually. If you have a PC or Mac, you can always copy them to your computer and back them up. You can also consider using another cloud service for backups.
Let's talk about disabling iCloud and also removing any photos you already have uploaded. You will have 30 days to recover your photos if you change your mind. Any photos that are on your iPhone when iOS 15 is released will be scanned.
You'll want to backup and disable iCloud, then verify that no photos were left on their servers.
Stop Apple From Scanning Your iPhone Photos - Back-Up Photos and Disable iCloud Photos
First, we can disable the uploading of iCloud photos while keeping all other backups, including your contacts, calendars, notes, and more.
Click on Settings.
At the top, click on your name.
Click on iCloud.
Click on Photos.
Uncheck iCloud Photos.
You will be prompted to decide what to do with your current photos.
If you have the space on your phone, you can click on Download Photos & Videos, and your photos will all be on your iPhone, ready to back up somewhere else.
Stop Apple From Scanning Your iPhone Photos - Delete Photos on Server
While all of your photos should be deleted from Apple's server, we should verify that.
Click on Settings.
At the top, click on your name.
Click on iCloud.
Click on Manage Storage.
Click on Photos.
Click on Disable & Delete
comments powered by Disqus
