Apple Looks Like It Will See Users' Galleries Content in iOS 16

Apple proclaims the privacy and protection of user data as its most important value. Reminds me of

This is what she did during yesterday’s announcement of iOS 16.Which, however, did not stop her from making secret attacks on this very privacy – of course, always under a good pretext (protecting children, for example). And it’s not even about the discredited AirTag tags, but about a much larger initiative, the legs of which have been growing since last summer. Let us recall that a year earlier, Cupertino residents decided to scan photographs and videos in the galleries of hundreds of millions of iPhones in search of child abuse and child pornography. Faced with harsh criticism from cybersecurity experts and ordinary users, Apple postponed the implementation of the initiative, but did not abandon its intentions.

In April, this “function for protectionchildren” was still launched, albeit in a limited form. Now, at the presentation of iOS 16, Apple gave a new reason to be wary. Under the pretext of convenience, the “Photo” An option was introduced that allows you to easily and, more importantly, automatically create family photo albums. Its essence lies in the fact that algorithms will study photographs, detect the faces of family members on them and transfer the pictures to a common collection in iCloud. Together with us, the editors of Western publications (in particular, XDA Developers) drew attention to this.

Create a shared family album

Another alarm bell that couldescape the attention of the public - a new feature of the improved lock screen, which allows you to “automatically select wallpapers similar to photos in the Gallery”. In short, Apple has come up with a couple of new excuses to implicitly violate the privacy boundaries of millions of its users by gaining access to the content of the most privacy-sensitive galleries. However, Apple will probably soon release a clarification that the study of galleries occurs purely inside your iPhone and is not sent to the company’s servers.

Wallpapers recommended based on Gallery content

© Vladimir Kovalev.