In the last week, Apple unveiled “NeuralHash,” a tool that will hasten our move toward a dystopian post-privacy world. The company informed the world this week that it would be adding the NeuralHash to its network of over a billion iPhones, storage platforms, and other resources. The NeuralHash will allow it to scan images before they are uploaded to iCloud for child pornography. The user will then be disabled and reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
As with Facebook’s campaign for people to embrace censorship by calling it “content modification”, Apple has repackaged perpetual monitoring as “perceptual hashing.” Not surprising, these pitches for eroding expectations of speech or privacy are presented as as harmless, even reassuring. After all, the only people who need to worry are those with images constituting child porn. Of course, that determination will be made by a bot who will present people for review using algorithms looking for Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Microsoft, Google, Facebook and others are already sharing digital fingerprints of known child sexual abuse images.
The controversy over Apple’s new system raises not just privacy concerns but broader concerns over the shifting of power from the government to corporate figures. In critical areas, United States is moving from a democracy to a corporatocracy where critical rights and privileges are effectively controlled by a small number of CEOs. The founding fathers of that corporatocracy are figures like Jack Dorsey (Twitter), Tim Cook (Apple), and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook). It is an alternative government created by acclamation rather than any constitution. From free speech to Covid mandates, many on the left, including the Biden Administration, have called for policies to be carried out by corporations like a type of shadow state. At the same time, companies like Facebook have been running commercials for months to try to convince people to embrace corporate censorship over their own speech. Yet, in this brave new world of corporate governance, nothing quite prepared many of us for
Apple will now use its phones to actively spy on over a billion users to see if any have photos that may be CSAM in order to report them. Imagine the post-privacy world unfolding literally before us. People will have no choice if they have an iPhone in allowing a corporation to monitor their photos. Then, when they use their phones on social media, Twitter and Facebook will censor any views that they object to on subject ranging from Covid to gender identification to Hunter Biden’s laptop to election fraud to even criticism of governments.
At the same time, the Biden White House has decided that it does not want to deal with the legal or political challenges of seeking to impose a national vaccine mandate. Instead, President Biden has called on corporations to carry out the mandate.
The Democratic embracing of corporate governance is a matter of simple convenience. Corporations now overwhelmingly support the left on key political issues, and some seem to have virtually written off roughly half of the country that voted for Donald Trump. More importantly, Democrats cannot limit speech, impose national vaccine mandates, or deny privacy through the government. However, surrogate corporations can since the First Amendment and other constitutional provisions address government not corporate abuses. Much of the Constitution then becomes largely relevant – your rights are entirely protected except from the main source of their denial.
What is really maddening is that companies like Facebook and Apple do not simply want us to yield core rights to them but to love them for it. After all, the cheerful hip figures on the Facebook censorship commercial like “Joshan” only want you to “change” to allow your “blending of the real world and the internet world.” Then there is Apple which simply tells you to
“Think Different” with all of the other worthy netizens at the “Genius bar.”
In this new world, free speech itself is a danger rather than the very thing that defines us. Privacy is a shield used by those who want to harm children. “Changing” with Joshan means learning to love corporate monitoring and “modifications.”
Carrying around your own personal surveillance device is not the only thing that you will lose in Apple’s Orwellian NeuralHash. In the end, the powers of both corporations and the government will be enhanced by our modified selves. Under the controlling standard of the “Katz” test, our privacy is protected from warrantless surveillance by our “expectations of privacy.” When such expectations exist, the government generally must obtain a warrant after showing probable cause that a crime is or has been committed. However, as our expectations fall, the government can engage in more warrantless surveillance. As it engages in more warrantless surveillance, our expectation fall further. Well, you get the idea.
We are increasingly living in a fishbowl society where monitoring (that would have once outraged Americans) is treated as part of life. When we leave our homes were are monitored on the road or at the 7-11 buying coffee. We are monitored on the streets and in our workplaces. We are monitored all the way home in the evening. Now, once at home our images will be monitored and our communications are “modified” according to what corporations want us to see and say.
The response from the left today is that none of this is a problem because corporations are not controlled by the Constitution. After all, if you want a phone that does not spy on you, invent one and compete with Apple with your own global network. Simple.
The current limited function of the NeuralHash is simply the decision of Apple. However, it is a new technology that can be expanded to other images and could potentially be used by the government. I recently testified in Congress about the rapid loss of privacy due to the government’s use of national security letters and other devices to search the iCloud and to obtain “metadata.” This includes the use of secret orders to corporations to spy on journalists during the Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations. We already have ample powers to investigate and prosecute child pornography but this function will now be taken up by the corporatocracy which is not directly controlled any more than by Fourth Amendment than the First Amendment.
Like authoritarian governments, authoritarian corporations always have an appealing reason for limiting freedoms. Fighting terrorism or child porn or “misinformation” often leave free speech or privacy as mere abstractions. After all, the idea is to “Think Different” about privacy. Indeed, you have to think differently from the original Apple when many of us bought its first computer. Back then Apple was portrayed in its famous “1984” Mac commercial as literally smashing the authoritarian conformity of Big Brother. Now, conformity is good. After all, as Orwell himself wrote in 1984, “One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
Citizen’s Arrest!
-S.Meyer,
I had the same issue. Tried a few different browsers, took down ad-blocker, still did not work.
Next day it was back to normal.
I think it was a conflict between two different plug-ins on Word Press or maybe the server the Professor is running his site on may of had a hic-up or needed a update.
I also have noted there have been a few SPAM (“Work from home!) as of late. I think the Professors sysadmin may have changed the anti-SPAM plug-in. Some work better than others, and then some dont play well with other plug-ins, or require the sever to be running a certain version of Apache, or Myphp, or could be a dozen different things.
Darren hopefully will respond and let me know what happened.
I’ve had problems in the past, so I thank you for comments. This time was different because we had multiple failures. My best guess with regard to the blog was that it was technical. The last post I attempted to make brought up a page with my name. Then I could post no more and postings coming to my email box may have been delayed or not made it.
The other problems are now partially known but in flux. No one person is available to tie everything together without spending thousands. Thank you Upstate for your advice.
Little Brother is everywhere. My satellite TV remote was automatically, without permission, upgraded to have Google Voice. Instead of just typing in a search for what’s playing, the search runs through Google, which is tracked. The company claims the microphone turns off when you’re not using the device, but we’re just supposed to trust them?
If you do an internet search, your FB account starts making suggestions. You should see what the algorithm comes up with when I restock the horses’ veterinary cabinet or buy dewormers.
It’s moved beyond marketing research to more like surveillance. What you read online, your internet searches, the friends you have on social media, what you post on social media, what you say on college campuses…It’s beginning to feel like China’s Social Credit System, with a combination of aggressive neighbors reporting you to authorities for political dissent. One of the most chilling moments this year was when it was discovered that teachers were putting together a data base to track and strike back at parents who objected to racist CRT taught in schools.
We’ve got to stop this.
There’s no “we” involved with you, Karen, because most Americans do not share your values or beliefs.
I do. So she’s got one one her side.
If Natcha cannot agree that this type of corporate censorship (on behalf of government) doesn’t need to be stopped, instead focusing on what others say that she disagrees with, then she’s part of the problem. Karen can count me in too. Natcha, you are free to move to Cuba or China or Russia. I think “we” (some of us) can agree with that. LOL
Natacha,
I think the answer to all this unhinged Trumpist paranoia is to give *them* the security jobs to monitor all this surveillance of the citizenry. If they don’t trust these faceless nefarious “Deep State” bureaucrats to monitor them, maybe they will trust themselves!
We’ve got to stop this. — Karen S
We agree… that’s why I’m here.
Karen,
“Little Brother is everywhere. My satellite TV remote was automatically, without permission, upgraded to have Google Voice. Instead of just typing in a search for what’s playing, the search runs through Google, which is tracked. The company claims the microphone turns off when you’re not using the device, but we’re just supposed to trust them? ”
YOU, allowed them to do that. That’s why it did that. If you really took the time to READ thru your terms and conditions. YOU gave them permission to do that UNLESS you change the settings on your device to stop these automatic updates. Yes you CAN do that. They won’t do anything FOR you. YOU have to do it yourself. What is funny is that social media companies have been doing this for YEARS. Your own android phone has been tracking you for YEARS every time you use an app. or use a search engine. The data they use YOU provided it to them when YOU agreed to the terms and conditions. The sad part is you can actually turn off the functions that do that.
No one should have the right to review my photos without permission or warrant.
I’ve got photos of my son when he was a baby during bath time or getting his diaper changed. If the software flags that for review, some stranger, perhaps a man, will look at those photos. I have no idea who that is. Pedophiles would be drawn to such jobs.
What about people who sext each other? Those private photos will be reviewed by strangers?
This also gives away access to our data. We’re just supposed to trust this company that it won’t misuse this access? That pictures won’t end up in the wrong hands? The scope for abuse or hacking is sobering.
Totalitarianism so often starts with reasonable-sounding chips into rights. I remember when Turley harshly criticized Bush for eroding individual rights on the hunt for terrorists.
You sound like you’re hiding something. You’re probably an anti-vaxxer too. I bet you voted for Trump. Beat your wife lately?
Anonymous
You’re getting tiresome and silly.
Anonymous – I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic.
@Anon…
No just beat yours while you hung out in the closet watching.
Sorry but that’s the level of comment to match yours.
Thanks for the laugh…
Karen,
“No one should have the right to review my photos without permission or warrant.
I’ve got photos of my son when he was a baby during bath time or getting his diaper changed. If the software flags that for review, some stranger, perhaps a man, will look at those photos. I have no idea who that is. Pedophiles would be drawn to such jobs.
What about people who sext each other? Those private photos will be reviewed by strangers?”
Apple is NOT, I repeat, Is NOT reviewing your photos at all. What they are doing is scanning hash codes. They are the equivalent of serial numbers on KNOWN photos that are known to be child porn. The only time they will “scan” your photos is when they upload to the cloud and the hash codes are compared to KNOWN photos with the hash codes. Nobody is LOOKING at your photos at all.
“No one should have the right to review my photos without permission or warrant.”
The sad thing is you GAVE them permission the moment you agreed to their terms and conditions. This is why it’s important to READ the entire terms and conditions BEFORE you agree to them because it is a legal document. What is truly sad and predictable is that nearly everyone mindlessly agrees to the terms and conditions just so they can have access and begin sharing their content.
Apple is opening itself up to civil suits in the BILLIONS when peoples lives start getting ruined due to false-positive results, and they are branded child molesters because the bot screwed up.
The concern here obviously isn’t Apple’s mission to fight child porn, it’s the tools that it’s using to do so, which WILL eventually be repurposed (and with eventual pressure from government) to make its algorithms hunt for other kinds of images, text, speech, “misinformation”,terrorism, etc. There is no way for outside groups to look under the hood to see how well it’s working, is it accurate? is this doing what its supposed to be doing? how many false-positives are there??? HOW MANY LIVES RUINED BY FALSE POSITIVES when the police show up knocking on your door and word gets out in the neighborhood, and your Facebook friends and family,… and people start tweeting about it,… and your employer hears the rumors…..
It’s far more than phones. It extends to all smart appliances and the Internet of Things. Already we have had a middle of the night no knock raid executed against a family after it turned out their fridge was hacked and was serving up child porn.
Years ago in the early infancy of the Internet I worked at a company where I tracked down a network printer that had been compromised and was serving pirated Playstation games on a Usenet Fserve board. The only reason I even found it was because people were complaining their print jobs were taking much longer than usual to show up.
As I understand the technology, censors use computerized “flesh filters” to analyze the percentage of flesh exposed.
Anyone that watched the Olympics recently, it’s very likely that many of the sporting events would have triggered “faux probable cause” of child pornography. Vacating at the beach? Your photos might get you blacklisted.
What about repressive regimes where they force women to cover most of their skin? Could the flesh-filters be used by the “Berka-Police” police to punish women with unexposed forearms and elbows?
The real danger is not a cop or federal agent charging you with a crime. The danger is covert-blacklisting like “Cointelpro” tactics – a life sentence of punishment without charge, judge, jury or guilty verdict. Corrupt cops (not most cops) have used this tactic since centuries to punish unpopular people or people they dislike.
For nearly 20 years, local and state governments receive billions of federal dollars to blacklist the maximum number of citizens. The more Americans they blacklist makes it all look legitimate. This system totally bypasses judges subverting the American rule of law.
“The real danger is not a cop or federal agent charging you with a crime. The danger is covert-blacklisting like “Cointelpro” tactics – a life sentence of punishment without charge, judge, jury or guilty verdict. Corrupt cops (not most cops) have used this tactic since centuries to punish unpopular people or people they dislike.”
And most Americans don’t seem to care. They’ll do pretty much whatever they’re asked by someone with a badge or an NSL.
These guys successfully shut down a President of the United States ability to reach Americans on social media. Do you get the feeling there’s something else going on with NeuralHash?
Trump is a chronic, habitual liar who fomented an insurrection because his narcissistic personality disorder prevented him from accepting the fact that most Americans: 1. did not vote for him in 2016; 2. never approved of him in 4 years’ time; 3. Did not vote for him in 2020–a result predicted by every single poll. The title “President” does not belong with this person’s name because he cheated his way into office, he is a proven traitor by causing an insurrection to prevent the legal election winner’s certified vote totals from being accepted by Congress, he constantly lied, and he is not worthy of the title. His name does not belong in the company of Washington, Lincoln, JFK, FDR, or even the Bushes.
You claim that your fat hero had his “ability to reach Americans” “shut down”. What was “shut down” were the lies–the Big Lie being the biggest one of all, plus using social media to organize and support the Insurrection. Social media does not owe this person a platform to commit these acts of treason. He is free to set up his own social media, but he really doesn’t need to because he has: Fox, OAN, News Max, Breitbart and others to spread his lies.
Natacha,
As a Fox primetime watcher (to the extent I can stomach it), Fox no longer mentions the Big Lie just like Turley won’t. The PillowGuy won’t advertise on Fox because of it.
Despite Fox’s censoring of bad news about Trump, Turley will not criticize his colleagues. He happily appears on their shows, so you would think that he would praise them for their honest and unbiased broadcasting! Instead, he never mentions Hannity, Carlson, Ingraham, Mark Levin, etc.
Turley wants it both ways- he wants to collect a fat Fox News paycheck to be on-call to occasionally give his legal imprimatur on an issue, but the rest of the time, he pretends that he has never heard of the place! Unfortunately for him, his Fox employment will never be forgotten nor forgiven by the vast majority of his professional colleagues.
I wonder if those who bought phones with an expectation of promised privacy have a cause for complaint with the one-sided change of terms? Seems like they may have, not that there is much that could be done about it with the courts corrupt or in hiding.
Even courts with Trump appointed judges now you don’t trust? You trust anything anymore?
I thought the Katz test of “Reasonable Expectation of Privacy” was about what the public believes is reasonable by virtue of its own judgement of what is reasonable, not in view of what to expect given abuses by government or industry. This NeuralHash has got to fail this test and is clearly and unconstitutional violation of our privacy. Somebody please take this to court!
If you think this and similar technology isn’t headed for Apple TV/smart TV’s, Siri, Google Assistant, Android and every other facet of big tech.. you are a fool. After all, the camera in your bedroom only starts recording and alerts the authorities if it detects you molesting a child. Why would you have a problem with that?
At least with Android the OS is open source and anyone with a moderate level of tech savvy, or knows someone who is, can root their phone and replace the existing OS installed on the phone by the manufacturer with a version stripped of it’s surveillance abilities and with beefed up security. This is far more difficult, if not outright impossible with Apple products.
Totalitarianism is upon us and we’re caving in.
We’re goin to Hell in a bucket, but at least we can enjoy the ride!
If police and security officials would simply reveal bottom-line statistics of indictments and convictions that would build trust with the American people.
For example: if you just do simple math on “terrorism-authorities” versus “terrorism-convictions” it appears that there is a 99% failure rate. Over a million people on various watchlists with a terrorism-conviction rate of less than 1/10 of 1%.
What bottom-line statistics appear to reveal is that terrorism-authorities were being used primarily for “non-terrorism” surveillance and searches. This is why many Americans are skeptical about these programs, because the agencies would reveal bottom-line results so voters can self-govern. Bottom-line statistics reveal no personal information or individual case information.
These statistics also likely reveal “Cointelpro” style covert blacklisting. Police and security officials dishing out punishments by bypassing the courts, subverting the American rule of law system. In other words a 99% failure rate makes all of us LESS safe, diverting resources to the wrong place.
Seems like honest police chiefs and honest agency chiefs would want to know these statistics if the end goal is public safety and protecting the homeland.
…if you just do simple math on “terrorism-authorities” versus “terrorism-convictions” it appears that there is a 99% failure rate. Over a million people on various watchlists with a terrorism-conviction rate of less than 1/10 of 1%. — Ashcroft’s Zersetzung
But the intimidation factor — Priceless!
We are at the beginning of a new paradigm and momentum is on the side of the tyrants (melodramatic, but they will be tyrants if we allow it).
Look at the media; they went hard left and we despaired that integrity was lost.
Then a bunch of real reporters (eg Glenn Greenwald) stepped up and thinking people had a choice.
Same with privacy. Gmail takes our information and the smart people get Protonmail.
A new phone system will become available.
Lefties will embrace Apple and CNN.
Thinking people are adjusting and adopting alternatives.
Parents better be careful of the photos they take of their children. Remember when Apple would not unlock the phone of the San Bernadino man; the Pensacola shooter. Now if the corporation can decide what we can and cannot do (vaccine, what we can say on FB, etc.), why can’t the Colorado baker decide if he wants to make the cake or not? Another speaks with fork tongue.
“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”
**********************
The creed of the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality. They’re back!! With the same tired radical lingo to boot!!!!
Darren, several days ago, I lost the ability to post. I don’t know if that was an intentional error on Word Press’s part, censorship, or came from elsewhere. I don’t even know the exact date because at the same time we lost our Internet and a lot of our services due to construction. I am now up and running (phones, TV, Internet etc.), so I don’t know exactly what happened.
I’d appreciate it if you could let me know if WordPress or censoring was a part of the problem as we get all our services running again. If there were any censorship (I hope not), I would like to know and understand the actual problem. If it were WordPress’s computer, I would like to know that as well. With so many things going wrong simultaneously and with companies shorthanded, many of our fixes are stopgaps that can fail, so it would be helpful to the service people and us to limit the problems.
(totally unrelated and also within the same time frame, one TIVO died, we replaced one cell phone, and temporary lines have been brought to my house. Covid has had its effect on services.)
I am thanking you in advance. (my email address if needed is on this icon)
Test.
Just another step closer to when everything is run by corporations
Put a sock on it.
To keep the child you’re hurting from screaming?