Klaus Zimmermann's Corner

The "Screeching Minority" and the need for real privacy

In an insider leak that is now already somewhat old news, Apple decided to start scanning and monitoring pictures uploaded to its iCloud service for Child Pornography, and condescendingly called opposers of such move the "Screeching Minority".

Condescending, infuriating, and worrying move perhaps, but one thing this announcement is not is "surprising." After all, Apple owns the service, and also in this case they own the endpoints, too. Where is the surprise that they can steer their products any way they want?

And besides, we have seen this sort of "broken promise" more than once before: Protonmail handing over a user's data to law enforcement and Tutanota downright backdooring a user after being served a court order (g-gasp! H-how could they??). Lavabit chose death over dishonor when facing a national security letter over the emails of Edward Snowden in 2013, but it belongs to a rarer breed.

In this episode, I discuss these implications while playing some awesome Nexuiz:

So what's the real solution here? Reject the "pretend privacy" loosely offered by big tech and practice real privacy. That is: the privacy that only yourself have control over via End to End Encryption.

What would you offer as an alternative to someone who currently uses iCloud? Let me know on Mastodon!