Apple recently updated its privacy policy. Coopertinos can now scan photos uploaded to iCloud for potentially illegal activities. For example, child abuse. The change was noticed by Andrew Orr, a journalist for The Mac Observer.
Apple is expected to use PhotoDNA technology, which Microsoft developed back in 2009, to identify banned content. At the same time, Coopertinos do not report anywhere at what stage they check the photos of users. Orr believes this can happen when the images are transferred to the server, because once the download is complete, the photos are stored encrypted.
In general, there is nothing wrong with such verification systems. Today, many major companies, including Facebook and Twitter, check content that users upload to their pages. However, it is somewhat embarrassing that the Coopertinos have not shared additional details about what content is subject to verification.
