Homomorphic-based Enhanced Visual Search is so privacy-preserving, iPhone giant activated it without asking

I have never liked Apple and lately even less. F… US monopolies

  • dustyData@lemmy.world
    1605·
    2 years ago

    Where’s the “Apple is the only tech giant that respects your privacy” crowd? Just because your data isn’t being publicly auctioned doesn’t mean they aren’t harvesting it and infringing on your privacy.

    • thefartographer@lemm.ee
      585·
      2 years ago

      I switched to iPhone from Android because I was tired of Google making changes to their security and APIs that were killing my macros I’d write for my phone. I was also tired of Google sending everything good to the graveyard. Finally, I hated that Google would promise features or support for x number of years and then pull the rug out from under me (although, lack of support was usually caused by the manufacturer)

      Before spending $1000 on my iPhone, I told my wife that it was a good investment because of Apple’s proven history of supporting devices with 5 years of updates; so we agreed that I’d keep this iPhone as my daily driver for 5 years because of the exuberant cost.

      Well, my wish came true and here we are. I’ve got a phone that doesn’t respect my privacy, doesn’t respect my settings, has a frustrating UI/UX, and has low compatibility with most of my existing infrastructure. I gotta admit, though, my experience is far more consistent now, but not in a good way.

      • The_v@lemmy.world
        11·
        2 years ago

        I have used both iOS and Android for more than a decade. After every update on both systems I have to go through and delete/disable junk I don’t need/privacy issues.

        The stock android pixel UI has gotten so full shit I have to use a launcher.

        iOS’s UI is terrible to use with everything taking twice as long as it should. So many illogical hidden commands.

        Everything has gotten randomly harder to get basic things done.

        My win 10 business computer with classic shell will stop being supported the end of the year… Oh joy…

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
          10·
          2 years ago

          While I’m still struggling to find an appropriate replacement for my photo editing apps, I’m happy to report that support and usability for most popular Linux distros have improved to the point that I now find Linux not only more stable, but easier to navigate than Win 10 was even at its best.

          The amount of noise associated with Windows, generally due to people answering questions about the wrong version of windows or the wrong application, searching for any help topics is like trying to run through mud. It’s literally quicker now to learn a totally new skill on Linux than to try to update your knowledge base on Windows.

            • thefartographer@lemm.ee
              4·
              2 years ago

              Gimp has been alright for me and (I hate to admit it) Illustrator is unparalleled when it comes to intuitive vector design.

              I love Photopea and was an early-adopter/small-donor, although I’ve mostly moved to Canva for my design needs.

              No, I’m looking for a solution to Lightroom and Camera Raw. I’ve tried Darktable and Rawtherapee, but, especially in Rawtherapee, I find that I quickly destroy my raw images and end up with something somehow simultaneously washed out and with crushed blacks. I’m sure it’s primarily user-error, but on my deadlines, I haven’t had a chance to learn these new platforms.

        • Zerush@lemmy.mlOP
          4·
          2 years ago

          I don’t believe that Win10 will die, due to the huge amount of users and companies. I think that it will be the same a with Win7, which survived several years it’s announced end. There are still users which can’t even update to Win11 with a relative new computer (without tricks), not because the lack of sources, but because it’s specs don’t appear in the list made by M$ of supported specs, as in my case with a 3 years old Laptop, because my AMD Radeon 9425 don’t appears in this idiotic list, offering to buy a new PC to use Win11 🤬💩

          • The_v@lemmy.world
            82·
            2 years ago

            I am typing this on a pixel 8

            Try disabling and removing the Google search bar. Can’t be done. Since Google search has gone down hill I never use it.

            How about removing the the news feeds? You have to disable the Google app to get rid of it. If I want to read the news, I do a quick search. It’s not hard to do. I don’t need a news feed on my phone.

            What about the stupid at a glance at the top of the home screen? It just takes up space for no benefit over the notification bar. It can’t be fully removed.

            I also never us any voice assistant etc because it’s faster to type it in than repeat myself.

            I currently have 19 apps on this phone disabled that I can’t uninstall… No fluff huh…

            All of my apps are organized into folders and I am never more than one swipe and two taps away from opening the app I want. I don’t scroll, I don’t search, I know where everything is and have it opening in under a second.

        • thefartographer@lemm.ee
          6·
          2 years ago

          I have the 14 pro and my sister recently got the 16 base model. I don’t know why, but the pictures from her newer phone looked like a major leap backwards in quality. Also, the latest OS does feel like its features were written in crayon and that its waiting to kick off its training wheels. I can’t fully describe it: it’s not clunky or clumsy, it just feels like something is missing from the experience. I’ve never really felt this way from a phone version upgrade before.

    • deranger@sh.itjust.works
      2314·
      2 years ago

      It’s not data harvesting if it works as claimed. The data is sent encrypted and not decrypted by the remote system performing the analysis.

      From the link:

      Put simply: You take a photo; your Mac or iThing locally outlines what it thinks is a landmark or place of interest in the snap; it homomorphically encrypts a representation of that portion of the image in a way that can be analyzed without being decrypted; it sends the encrypted data to a remote server to do that analysis, so that the landmark can be identified from a big database of places; and it receives the suggested location again in encrypted form that it alone can decipher.

      If it all works as claimed, and there are no side-channels or other leaks, Apple can’t see what’s in your photos, neither the image data nor the looked-up label.

    • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
      81·
      2 years ago

      I heard that they were the first test-audience Apple used to test their new product, the IRope. Apple designed it to go around their user’s necks. The other end of the IRope is designed to attach to a proprietary cryptographic dongle to work called the Lynch-Key. Apple says it’s like a lynch-pin because it’s critical to the function the IRope.

      Apple never did hear back from the test-audience. -I think this product will be a real winner!

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      69·
      2 years ago

      Oh they’re here, just seething about this and their precious green texts or whatever the fuck else false sense of security they’ve been clinging to

  • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
    941·
    2 years ago

    In case anyone came to the comments looking for directions on how to opt out:

    1. Go to Settings. 2) Scroll down and select “Photos.” 3) Locate the “Enhanced Visual Search” option. Turn off the toggle.
  • jqubed@lemmy.world
    48·
    2 years ago

    “Apple is being thoughtful about doing this in a (theoretically) privacy-preserving way, but I don’t think the company is living up to its ideals here,” observed software developer Michael Tsai in an analysis shared Wednesday. “Not only is it not opt-in, but you can’t effectively opt out if it starts uploading metadata about your photos before you even use the search feature. It does this even if you’ve already opted out of uploading your photos to iCloud.”

    Reading the article, the service itself is interesting and it sounds like Apple might have found a way to process the data while preserving user privacy, but the fact that they unilaterally opted everyone in without giving them a choice is the biggest problem.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
        6·
        2 years ago

        Not almost, it just is. It is the winning strategy right now. Everyone who is doing it gains massive profits somehow. Money speaks for itself, isn’t it?

        • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
          3·
          2 years ago

          I doubt every company who shits on it’s user’s privacy and their preferred experience is gaining massive profits right now, we’re just discussing the successful ones. I think the two leading factors in this scenario are “Brand Recognition” and “double dipping into as many aspects as possible with your user’s data.” The whole ‘if it’s free’, apple is definitely getting a kick back sending all this data to them even if it’s “secure”.

  • kipo@lemm.eeEnglish
    281·
    2 years ago

    An opt-out that you can’t opt out of because Apple already opted you in and took your photos?

    This seems like it is going to be a huge lawsuit. Since a class action won’t deter them or help us, let’s all sue Apple individually in small claims court and kill them by death from a billion cuts.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
      4·
      2 years ago

      According to another comment, the photos never leave your device, that part of the processing is done on-device. The global index is on our Apple servers.

  • reddig33@lemmy.world
    23·
    2 years ago

    Apple opted customers in, got sued, and will now prompt customers if they want to be opted in or out.

  • namingthingsiseasy@programming.dev
    23·
    2 years ago

    For-profit companies are perpetually locked in a conflict of interest. Inevitably, they will have to decide between what is in the best interest of their users (or other public interests such as the environment for example) with their never-ending obsession to make ever more money. No matter what they say or do publicly, they will always sell out for more profit.

    In this case, a bunch of Silicon Valley investors (people who have collectively made trillions over every iteration of IT progress) are forcing “AI” to be the next thing. They have basically decided that they want all tech progress to focus on this area and are forcing every company they invest in to make that happen, regardless of the societal impact.

    As a result, you can see clearly that all of these companies (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Reddit) are basing all their business decisions into trying to make this fantasy become a reality. Even Apple now, the masters of creating a facade of privacy is falling straight into line. And the one thing they all have in common: investors.

    And that is why you should always be wary of interacting with big business interests - they will inevitably sell you out someday.

    • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      2 years ago

      Somehow I am much less scared of AI being forced into everything compared to VR or crypto.

      I guess it’s because I know AI is a nothing burger and will slowly lose hype.

      • ClamDrinker@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 years ago

        While I agree that the AI they will implement will likely not be very effective, it doesn’t have to be to cause massive human suffering. Eg. Google incorrectly marking exposed photos of your kid for your doctor as CSAM. There’s also no guarantee that once these companies finally wake the fuck up (If they’re not already completely aware what they’re doing is messed up) that they will close these holes they’re punching, and that could mean they could replace AI with a mass surveillance tool at any point without you knowing. Nobody should be a fan of this.

      • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
        41·
        2 years ago

        I agree. Definitely.

        However, your money actually just went to Trump, via Apple, and their hardware and services.

          • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
            11·
            2 years ago

            In pretty sure Xiaomi don’t pay Trump. But, you never really know.

            What we do really know, is Apple do. Spending with Apple is spending with Trump, guaranteed.

              • makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml
                11·
                2 years ago

                And, we can try and avoid them. Or, we can pay trump through them.

                There are so many android manufacturers that wouldn’t even spit in trumps direction. The choice is there. It can be taken. Or, we can shrug, find excuses, and just give Trump our money through apple (in this example).

                • AtariDump@lemmy.world
                  1·
                  2 years ago

                  Yes, this is bigger than just phones. PLENTY of other combines donated to him.

                  You are avoiding those companies too, right?

        • solomon42069@lemmy.world
          91·
          2 years ago

          Fair. Maybe if he’d given some of Apple’s ill gotten gains to gay organisations we wouldn’t be here!

      • reddig33@lemmy.world
        101·
        2 years ago

        I think it was his end run around Apple donating the money directly which would have been a complete disaster. I don’t think Cook supports trump in a “rah rah” sort of way, but knows if the company doesn’t pay him suck up money, it will come back to haunt them later.

        Either way, it’s still gross.

  • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
    152·
    2 years ago

    Although this is terrible, once again a headline on lemmy made me paranoid only to find out that my phone probably doesn’t even support this.

    Going through the settings and turning things off is second nature to me by now, it’s not unique to Apple (looking at your Microsoft).

    What we need is an opt out mode on every device. Similar to the accept necessary cookies only, we need every device to let you fully opt out from everything it can when you boot it up for the first time.

    • Cataphract@lemmy.ml
      3·
      2 years ago

      I don’t think it’s fair to say “once again a headline on lemmy”, by connotation you’re vaguely suggesting Lemmy is responsible.

      I’m a big settings person as well but honestly Apple is a fucking evil genius at hiding options in menus within menus. Plus this was an opt-change done randomly in the middle of “nobody knows”, I don’t check all of my settings and their subsequent menus daily for any changes being made.

      I’m just flabbergasted by the whole apple industry though. Like it’s obvious when a company wants to offer a new user experience (their newest innovative design!), and it’s obvious when a company wants to only tailor to “Their preferred vision of what an apple user and their experience should be”. No one asked for this shit, and it’s being shoved down everyone’s throats.

      I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I still watch people walk into a Dollar General knowing how crappy that company acts and how much more costly everything is. We’re all slowly being pigeon holed into a “unified user experience” and it’s the shittiest outcome.

  • Jinni@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    121·
    2 years ago

    Never accept the technology just because it is optional. Eventually it will become default and eventually maditory.

  • dubyakay@lemmy.ml
    9·
    2 years ago

    Enhanced Visual Search in Photos allows you to search for photos using landmarks or points of interest. Your device privately matches places in your photos to a global index Apple maintains on our servers. We apply homomorphic encryption and differential privacy, and use an OHTTP relay that hides [your] IP address. This prevents Apple from learning about the information in your photos. You can turn off Enhanced Visual Search at any time on your iOS or iPadOS device by going to Settings > Apps > Photos. On Mac, open Photos and go to Settings > General.

    Apple did explain the technology in a technical paper published on October 24, 2024, around the time that Enhanced Visual Search is believed to have debuted. A local machine-learning model analyzes photos to look for a “region of interest” that may depict a landmark. If the AI model finds a likely match, it calculates a vector embedding – an array of numbers – representing that portion of the image.

    So it’s local. And encrypted. How is this really news? Am I missing something?

  • utopiah@lemmy.ml
    145·
    2 years ago

    “does this even if you’ve already opted out of uploading your photos to iCloud.” damn that’s a bit much!

    Edit; in this thread, people who miss the point of homomorphic encryption to dunk (sadly often rightfully so) on Apple.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 years ago

      Tim Apple was going to kick $1M to whomever won. For a guy with a net worth in the tens of billions, this is just a tip to the wait staff at the Table Of Success.

      But the Apple photo library is a huge potential source of revenue. Its worth significantly more than $1M. This is, incidentally, why you don’t need to pay Apple to host those images. If you’re not the client, you’re the product.

      • boonhet@lemm.ee
        2·
        2 years ago

        This is, incidentally, why you don’t need to pay Apple to host those images

        Huh? You pay for anything above 5 GB or so. It’s standard for most cloud providers to offer a free tier to get you hooked. Their storage after that isn’t all that cheap even.