Do you think people would be okay with 'Recall' if Apple did it?
With the recent WWDC apple made some bold claims about privacy when it comes to so called Apple Intelligence. This makes me wonder if they did something to what Microsoft did with Recall feature, would people be less concerned and to an extend praise their effort?
Do I trust them? Sure, I guess, when it comes to privacy from other entities.
Do I trust that I will have privacy from Apple? Hell no. What does "local" even mean on an iCloud connected iOS device anymore? Because there's nothing on that phone Apple can't access remotely if they want to, and if any of the AI cache is backed up on iCloud, that's not local anymore.
Do I trust them with the data they're absolutely gathering? No, but I don't trust anyone with it. But I also think that data would be relatively safer with Apple than their competitors.
If Apple announced Recall? Apple wouldn't announce Recall, that's the whole point. Apple wouldn't be so brazen and stupid to push a tool that is so obviously invasive and so poorly implemented. Apple earned its trust by not making those mistakes.
But if they did decide to say fuck it and implement something like Recall, of course people would trust them. That's what trust means: consumers take them at their word. But if it's as bad as Microsoft's Recall, Apple would burn all that trust when people found out.
People don't believe Microsoft because they have long since burned any trust and good will for most of their consumers. They have proven time and time again they don't give a shit about users' wants or needs, and users have felt that. So when they announce Recall, they have no earned trust. No one believes their assurances. There's no good faith to cushion this. And it turns out everyone was right not to grant them that trust.
Does that mean I'd ever use an Apple device? Hell no. I value my privacy, but I value it on my terms, not Apple's, and I will never use a device that creates privacy through taking power from the user.
Apple's PR is better.
With Microsoft all news titles were like "OMG Windows will take screenshots of all you do and send it to AI", and with Apple it's more like "Apple is carefully adding AI to their products, respecting user privacy as they always have been".
Of course, when one looks into technical details they would find that MS Recall is strictly local and runs only on special hardware that people don't even have yet.
Apple Intelligence does send your data to cloud and scans everything you have in Apple ecosystem, not just screenshots. Of course they say it's done in very privacy respecting ways, and provide a lot of technical information to back this claim. But at the end it's closed source and is subject to change at any time.
Having said that, Apple users are used to and value that Apple magically takes care of everything, so they are happy to pay premium for Apple's products whatever the company does.
Everyone suckles Apple's dick. Friends of mine were talking as if Microsoft has ended security and privacy, but are lapping up the Apple Intelligence crap
No. I inherently distrust trillion dolllar tech companies in poorly regulated economies. They are able to get away with a lot of crap and they know it. That's how the Cult of Apple works. I would not be surprised when they violate their own privacy policy knowingly and structurally.
No. The whole world turned against them in 2021 (I think?) when they were gonna have on-device monitoring for CSAM. They'd get run over by a bus for this too, same as MS.
"People" would be, yes. Apple is continuously praised by its rabid fans for engaging in anti-consumer practices disguised as "courage" or "security". There will always be a very vocal group who believe it is the greatest, most humane and ethical company on the planet. Whether the same people who criticised Microsoft would be criticising Apple is another question.
I'm not sure I would use a open source Linux version of Recall, I think it would be like always sharing/streaming your desktop, so I think .bash_history is enough recall for me.
I would also allow an open source version of Co-Pilot because the AI snooping only happens within a single program.
Apple at least tries to explain what is happening, and while not always great, you feel you understand why they are doing something or implementing new functionality unlike Windows who just dumps this shit on you without your consent and then you have to learn 5 years later that they put absolutely no thought in why they were doing, especially thinking about your privacy. Anyway, I use Arch, btw. /s
In my opinion the problem is not who would agree/disagree with it, its more like the fanbase and marketing is on another level and most people would just not care as long as they have the latest iPhone with the latest buzzword functions and features.
I feel people are more forgiving towards apple. I dont have any study or anything to back it up, just can't see why the die-hard userbase of the most isolated and curated ecosystem would care about anything.
I found it really weird too, Microsoft pushing Recall, an AI feature, vs Apple pushing Apple Intelligence, an AI feature.. and only Microsoft got backfired.
I never bought any Apple product and thought they were overhyped, so it might be easy enough for me to say, but no, I personally wouldn't have been Ok with it.
I can see more people begrudgingly using it if Apple did it though.
I would trust them more than Microsoft because at least they would actually store it encrypted safely and not just basic ACLs that are easy to bypass.
Even with a root shell on macOS you can't bypass certain things like access to the camera for example. You'd have to work way harder to access recall data, not in a way that malware can trivially access.
I still wouldn't use it though, because I think the whole thing is dumb and I don't need my computer to spy on me so I can remember what I did yesterday. I have browser/shell history for that.
You're saying this like Micro$hit isn't just going to revert back to recall being opt-out (or non-removable) in a few weeks after the outrage dies down
Yes. Their privacy policy is very clear. They’ve put so much effort into providing privacy features, well before every other developer in the industry, that they’ve built their customer base on it. The class action suit that they would face for compromising that policy would be massive, and they would hemorrhage customers. They have strong financial reason to maintain their word. If you ask for your GDPR compliant abstract from Apple, it’ll only include your name, phone number, and billing address.
From a security standpoint, the privacy features are top notch. They use 256-bit AES encryption for iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, Apple Wallet, Find My iPhone, HomeKit, FileVault, Secure Enclave, and now Apple Intelligence. Apple operating systems use a UNIX kernel design, keeping the application layer independent of the operating system layer, allowing full sandbox control and requiring user authorization for any API access.
Plus, nerds love to try and find chinks in the armor. In the event of the inevitable vulnerability, Apple is always quick to release a patch.
Edit: You asked a question about Apple products outside of an Apple instance. Look for the ones with all the downvotes to get a real answer from Apple customers. PC/Android users love to condescendingly reply to and downvote Apple supporting comments. I think it makes them feel superior. Lol
I don't think Apple is planning that. For now they're trying the approach to expose metadata like email headers to their AI, but that such data has been already accessible to the search functionality anyway.
It's very different from Recall, which dumps screen capture of webpages and passwords into a database file that's only protected by access rights.
Recall in principal is a cool idea. It is also one that M$ has not earned the trust for. I think Apple would be better received. I'm not sure I would like Apple's recall, but they have done more to foster trust than M$.