You bought it, it's yours, right?

[Workingman]

Wrong! Everything on it is theirs..... but who are 'they'?

Apple has developed a system to identify child abuse images on a customer's iPhone and iPad. That has to be good, surely? Well that's how it is being sold - for now. Android will no doubt follow.

However there are privacy concerns that the technology could be expanded to scan phones for prohibited content or even political speech.

"Regardless of what Apple's long term plans are, they've sent a very clear signal. In their (very influential) opinion, it is safe to build systems that scan users' phones for prohibited content," Matthew Green, a security researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said.

"Whether they turn out to be right or wrong on that point hardly matters. This will break the dam — governments will demand it from everyone."

In the not too distant future if you have a mobile device governments will know of everything you photograph, text, say, where you were, how you got there, how long you stayed, and and by comparing your data with others, who you were with.

This new tech is being sold as a positive to stop a disgusting crime, and it is, but boy are there downsides.

[Suff]

Interesting you should mention this.

I just put it down to another reason why I wouldn't buy crapple tech.

But today, whilst researching how to bring my old FireTV back to life (I've lost the controller), I was reading a technical article about options to fix your problem. One was to use two mobile phones and enable the hotspot on one of them. The key point in the article was when it says "but you can't use an iPhone because you can't change the hotspot name". WTF. This is fundamental hotspot stuff, what happens if two hundred people are in a room and 50 of them want to share their data with others? Got crapple tech, tough chuckies.

[Workingman]

Judging by the number of replies I might have frightened people.

Well, peeps, you should be worried. Hackers can hijack your camera, microphone and keyboard.... and by simple means they know where you are. You do not even know that you are hacked. The good news is that they a) are not particularly interested in Winnie having coffee with Alan and Elsie in the local café and b ) they do not have the resources, so they target.

Governments, the manufacturers, SM platforms, ISPs and their likes are different - they do have the resources.

You have all seen those films where an 'agency' is watching over an area. All the green dots are people they are not interested in, the blue ones are theirs, the red ones are the ones being tracked. There was a time when it was Sci-Fi.....

[Workingman]

And don't forget the two-way auio / visual CCTV cameras.

We are watched over like never before and we have bought in. 1984 has already happened, except for the thought police, but they are working on it...

[cromwell]

The advances in big tech have created a world where it is much easier to track and monitor people and politicians of all colours seem to be very interested in this.

Basically our political parties do not trust us. They regard themselves as being an elite and the rest of us? Well, we are stupid, ignorant, racist and violent - in their eyes.

To support this I'd just give a couple of examples. In the 7/7 bombings when 52 people were killed in London, three out of the four bombers came from Leeds. The then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, immediately threw a police cordon around the area where the bombers came from. To search for further miscreants? No. To protect the local community from the attacks of white racists which he was sure would follow. But of course, there were no attacks.
Similarly with the grooming gangs in Rotherham. The truth had to be hidden by the authorities because otherwise "the town would explode" with race riots. The truth did come out, and there were no race riots.

Despite this evidence the attitude of people in Westminster hasn't changed. In their eyes the people of the UK need to be controlled for their own good, and big tech is providing them with the tools to do it.

[Suff]

I was trying to reply but the site was borked.

There is a reason why I use Russian anti spyware. I don't care very much what they know about me as they touch my life very little. It also irks our government a lot to have it's own citizens protected by Russian software over which they have no control...

[Workingman]

Apple says it will refuse government demands to use its child safety system for surveillance.

Yes, you read that right. So why would Apple be saying it? Could it be that some governments have already asked. Could ours be one?

And just because Apple has officially said 'No' it does not mean that the info will always be secure from state players.