I’m sorry, but there is a world of difference between locally indexing files for local search and tagging files as contraband so that they can be reported to the government.
Technically speaking, no there isn’t. It’s just a little bit if metadata you’re sticking on an already long tail of metadata that they’re doing as they index.
The biggest concern about Apple’s system is that it’s very easy to add new items to a hash list. That is an argument about the technical similarity of scanning for CSAM and scanning for other things like classified documents (for example).
But there is a vast difference in principle. Pretty much everyone wants to stop child abuse. But many people—including major news organizations—believe citizens should sometimes have the opportunity to view classified documents.
Different categories of things to scan for will be different in principle, even if the technical approach is similar. This difference in principle is what Apple leans on when they say they will oppose any request to expand their system beyond CSAM.
The biggest concern about Apple’s system is that they are showing to all governments and everyone that it’s fine and good to scan for whatever on my device and report me to the government if they see fit, despite years prior refusing to implement backdoors or give access to someone’s device to the FBI.
They essentially invalidated all those claims and I can’t see how they’ll now be able to argue back if the US or the Chinas come to Apple saying they have to have more surveillance in their devices.
