A thorough look at Live Text, and why it might need to connect to Apple’s servers. Could it be sending image identifiers or text extracted from your local images?
CSAM
I’m browsing images in the Finder, when my software firewall tells me macOS is trying to phone home to one of Apple’s servers. We all know what that means, don’t we?
Can it be true that Apple is sent information about every image we browse in the Finder? Analysis of Visual Look Up and Live Text and when it happens.
Some suspect Apple of scanning images stored on your Mac. What evidence is there that could be happening?
Remember Apple’s failed attempt to detect CSAM in images? Would that have been similar to the way that Visual Look Up works? Is this the thin end of the wedge?
Over the coming year in which Big Sur will be eligible for only security fixes, is it going to be a wide choice, or would Monterey be better value?
Apple hasn’t trusted us with the knowledge of what’s in macOS 11.5.2 update, but expects us to trust it not to abuse its checks on CSAM.
Apple’s controversial proposals to check photos for CSAM content before they’re uploaded to iCloud depend on image matching, as explained here.
The Eclectic Light Company 