I think it's a kind of fine distinction... for now. My primary concern with Apple's proposed implementation of CSAM detection hinges almost entirely on the fact that it is performed on device. I use iCloud photos right now knowing fully well that it is subject to these scans.
I think ideally things would truly be E2E encrypted, in which case Apple or any other cloud provider doesn't have to trouble themselves about what's on their servers, since no one but the user could ever look at the contents of it. In this case a big blob of data up to the storage limits of the person's plan is the only thing they'd have to worry about.
That is also the other issue with Apple's proposed implementation. It completely circumvents E2EE and makes it entirely pointless. It doesn't preserve privacy in any respect whatsoever.
And to what end? You might capture a few people that are syncing their child porn on iCloud without encrypting it themselves first, but does this really make children any safer? It certainly endangers anyone using an iPhone given the technology doesn't discriminate against what kind of hashes it provides and increases the scope of surveillance on everyone. These sorts of things are extremely hard to undo.
I think ideally things would truly be E2E encrypted, in which case Apple or any other cloud provider doesn't have to trouble themselves about what's on their servers, since no one but the user could ever look at the contents of it. In this case a big blob of data up to the storage limits of the person's plan is the only thing they'd have to worry about.
That is also the other issue with Apple's proposed implementation. It completely circumvents E2EE and makes it entirely pointless. It doesn't preserve privacy in any respect whatsoever.
And to what end? You might capture a few people that are syncing their child porn on iCloud without encrypting it themselves first, but does this really make children any safer? It certainly endangers anyone using an iPhone given the technology doesn't discriminate against what kind of hashes it provides and increases the scope of surveillance on everyone. These sorts of things are extremely hard to undo.