@iota You make very valid points, however, one thing I’m always wary of is that in the name of “being tough on crime” the rules can get exploited and abused. For example:
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It was actually already implemented since iOS 14.3, although it wasn’t enabled by default.
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I agree, it’s kind of the point I was trying to make. Tough on crime rhetoric is usually synonymous with authoritarian traits, not safer societies.
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To what technology or technologies have you moved files in-house? For example, I use a NAS for in-house storage, but I still back up everything to a cloud-based service. I added the cloud-based service after almost losing the NAS during a hurricane. I must have redundancy, but I am open to physical redundancy instead of cloud-based redundancy. What’s your physical redundancy for your file storage? How do you protect that redundant storage from floods, fire, etc.?
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^ I often wonder the same thing.
As someone who once trained and worked as a photographer, I learned to keep all negatives for “just in case” scenarios. That habit replicated itself in the digital-photo world, where it is much easier to save the original digital photos than it was to save film negatives.
Photo editing – as in discarding photos that don’t meet a certain standard – is much harder, in my opinion, than photo taking, so I appreciate your challenge!
A complement to this is that it is always easier to edit someone else’s photos than it is to edit one’s own photos, especially when the subjects of the photos are not one’s friends or relatives.
I met the husband of a travel-agency owner who told me that he lost to theft all his expensive camera equipment on a tour some years earlier. He told me that he no longer traveled with a camera, preferring instead to absorb the scenery without all that intervening equipment.
I’m not ready for that, but, since ordering the Mudita Pure and hiding the camera app on my Android phone, I have become keenly aware of how many people use their smartphones to take photos.
I often wonder what percentage of cloud storage today is occupied by digital photos and digital videos.
I now wonder:
- Is digital photography to film photography as smartphones are to feature phones?
Digital photography and smartphones have given us undeniable benefits over film photography and feature phones, respectively, but at what costs? Your post challenged the conventional wisdom that digital photography gives us only benefits, so thank you for that!
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Preach!
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I’ll give one scenario that justifies file storage (in addition to sentimental photos).
Learning how to process photos in astrophotography.
I’ve never actually done this in normal photos, but I have had some exposure to image processing in radio astronomy and having raw data files is useful for future applications when you learn new processing techniques or develop new interests to investigate.
I agree with your premises that it’s good to think about WHY you are keeping something, but the answer is going to vary wildly from person to person.
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You should read Zero History by William Gibson. There’s a fantastic hypothetical way to get around a surveillance network in that story that involves an ant.
Although given Gibson’s track record, it probably already exists.
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No, the EU will take it further:
In the future, this will include mandatory scanning of end-to-end encrypted messages for CSAM. I just don’t know how they will enforce that. Are they going to outlaw open-source?
Some extra notes for those of you who were not aware:
- Apple was already scanning your photos in iCloud for illegal content, as does any other big cloud provider. Unless it offers zero-knowledge privacy through an open-source app, a cloud service provider should be considered compromised.
- The reason this specific CSAM scanning implementation is worrisome is because it is on device, not in the cloud. It scans your photos on your local storage, offline. Security researchers warn that this opens the floodgates. The next step is scanning for any other illegal content, including content censored in totalitarian regimes. This scanning can be extended to anything the camera sees before taking a photo, in real-time, or anything the microphone hears. Don’t forget: it’s on device, no internet connection required for this scanning, and Apple’s special AI microships are tailored for this kind of work.
- Apple was already eavesdropping you through Siri:
and also Google and Amazon:
- Apple is spying on its employees:
- Apple is also spying on your activity (including your apps) on your Mac:
In summary:
You should not be using any device with iOS, Mac OS X, Google Android and/or virtual assistants. They spy on all of your activity, your location, they eavesdrop on conversations and soon they will scan all your files locally on device in real-time for anything they deem illegal
For computers:
Linux is safe. Microsoft Windows is off the hook too, for now, if you use a local account (not a Microsoft account) and kill Cortana. You can use an app like O&O Shut Up to disable activity monitoring on your local account and exterminate Cortana.
For phones:
Use open-source Android like LineageOS, GrapheneOS, CalyxOS or any other. Or use a dumbphone, obviously.
(to protect yourself from companies, not from governments, then you just don’t use phones at all)
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@nilss Thank you for sharing these links.
The ugly truth is that tech companies ARE tracking and misusing our data & unless we are proactive about protecting our data, they will find ways to circumvent most barriers that are set up to protect us.
About a month ago, I posted a thread about Google using deceptive tracking practices & how they are now being sued over it.
I also posted a thread to an article about Google sharing info with the Police.
The bottom line is, our data is a commodity for BIG TECH. Exploiting data to manipulate & monetize human behavior has always been the end goal. It’s literally how they make their money.
Then. when we start to guard our privacy, BIG TECH claims to come up with ways to ‘help’ us with all sorts of different privacy settings. The only thing that does, it shut out some other tech companies from getting their hands on our data- but the ones who implement the privacy settings still have access to it.
In a way, it gives them a leg up on the competition.
Seems Google are aiming for older devices as well. https://chromeenterprise.google/os/chromeosflex/
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@John_Andersson Google also noticed that more & more people are moving to feature phones, so they designed Google Go. A lighter version of Google.
I feel like they are on to us…and are trying to lure us back in 
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Of course they are 
…And expanding in developing countries. Asia 4.56b, Africa 1.22b, South America 422m ppl. That is a lot of phones AND data…
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I think you meant Cortana, not Alexa.
Corrected. As you see, I do not use those assistants 
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@john_dumpling, @nilss
When I first read the post, I thought, “who the heck is Cortana.??”
I use a PC, but I really never heard of Cortana. Then I looked at this…
Stuff like this just gets under my skin. They are not even trying to hide it anymore.
Meanwhile, in our “real” life:
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“Open-air prison” is another name for it.
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