War Is Peace

That’s the motto of the party in Orwell’s 1984. Apple’s Craig Federighi appears to want to add a fourth item:

Big Brother would approve. Federighi gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he calls Apple’s planned photo scanning an advancement in privacy. That’s pretty ironic considering Apple’s iconic 1984 ad

Apple should have ended the ad with, “1984 will not be like 1984; 2021 will be like 1984.”

If you don’t know about 1984, how about a Vietnam-era-like slogan: “We have to destroy privacy to save it.” If you need something more timeless, how about “Liar liar, pants on fire.” Of course, like Big Brother’s motto, the meaning of Federighi’s statement is more than its obvious contradiction. Loosely translated, the meaning of his words are “It could have been worse.” In the interest of fairness, here’s a more generous translation: “This is the least intrusive way we can surveil you.”

But the thing is, it’s still surveillance, something Apple promised they’d never do. And despite Apple’s demurrals, it won’t end with child pornography. As Kurt Opsahl of the EFF puts it, If You Build It, They Will Come. All governments—all—hate that their citizens have access to cryptography and do everything they can to subvert it. There’s no reason to think they won’t go after the backdoor Apple is introducing. If you think Apple’s CSAM scanning is not a backdoor, you’re about to be rudely disabused of that comfortable notion.