I keep hearing the same argument from people, and I'm mostly in agreement, but to summarize the argument:
>"I am not afraid of personally being found with child pornography, but I don't want Apple searching my files looking for criminal intent"
But I would argue that you SHOULD be afraid of personally being found with child pornography.
First and foremost, this feature could be exploited for harm. If anyone ever wants to hurt you, all they have to do is get access to your unlocked Apple device long enough to drop CASM into a backed-up folder, and you get reported to the feds.
Or, way more realistically, maybe you downloaded some amateur porno that you didn't know had underage participants in it, and you saved it where it got backed up to the cloud, and two years later the government has added the video to their known CSAM database and you get reported to the feds for having it.
Given how the mere accusation of child sex crimes is enough to destroy careers, marriages, and lives, I see absolutely no reason anyone should trust their Apple devices with anything should this become normal practice.
And if this becomes normal practice, it follows that CASM won't be the only thing they end up looking for.
>"I am not afraid of personally being found with child pornography, but I don't want Apple searching my files looking for criminal intent"
But I would argue that you SHOULD be afraid of personally being found with child pornography.
First and foremost, this feature could be exploited for harm. If anyone ever wants to hurt you, all they have to do is get access to your unlocked Apple device long enough to drop CASM into a backed-up folder, and you get reported to the feds.
Or, way more realistically, maybe you downloaded some amateur porno that you didn't know had underage participants in it, and you saved it where it got backed up to the cloud, and two years later the government has added the video to their known CSAM database and you get reported to the feds for having it.
Given how the mere accusation of child sex crimes is enough to destroy careers, marriages, and lives, I see absolutely no reason anyone should trust their Apple devices with anything should this become normal practice.
And if this becomes normal practice, it follows that CASM won't be the only thing they end up looking for.