Apple Fails to Justify the Means and Forgets to Justify the Ends

I mean, my god this was an obvious communication failure…

They see you when you’re sleeping. They know when you’re awake. They know if you’ve been bad or good. So…

Did you hear the news? Apple is about to start looking at all your photos. One by one. The blanket rationale is to catch pedophiles, but they want to see it all! Beautiful, isn’t it?

Or, at least, that’s what the focal point of most articles about this topic largely seem to suggest. And that’s too bad because there is a really interesting debate and conversation to be had here. But we’re largely missing it as a result of such headlines about the world’s most valuable company.

And it’s largely Apple’s own fault. Perhaps feeling left out by the constant communication own-goals by Facebook, Apple set up the mother of all self-owns.¹ It’s hard to think of a more massive communication fuck up, honestly. Again, because this topic is so big, so important, and so sensitive. Apple probably should have had an event, or at the very least a large-scale pre-brief with journalists and bloggers to talk through these issues.²

Instead, they put the news out there in the world — yes, backed up by a good amount of data and papers, but come on, can we really expect such things to make headlines without a lot of hand-holding? In a perfect world, perhaps. But we don’t live in a perfect world. Which, at a very high level, is exactly why Apple is also working on such a feature.

Based on my own experience as a former Apple reporter, I’m guessing that Apple PR has been in damage control overdrive for the past few days, trying to get their rationale out there in the world. You’d think it would be easy to assume Apple isn’t doing this for nefarious reasons because they’re not a company full of James Bond villains. But! Some may also disagree about making such assumptions. It honestly doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the rationale is more likely than not coming from a good place — perhaps this is step one towards full end-to-end iCloud backup encryption? — but that’s still not a good enough reason to do it.

I found this post from Marc LaFountain compelling. He previously worked on some of these issues for Tumblr, a network, which, of course, needed such issues worked on. Marc’s post isn’t overly incendiary, but it brings up a few real downsides of Apple’s presumed good intent here. The one that resonates most is the notion that this is a Pandora’s Box which Apple may regret opening in the future.

And that’s because if they roll out such capabilities, other, less altruistic types, will attempt to pressure Apple to take advantage of them. To use an awful analogy here, it’s “if you give a mouse a cookie…” Apple can, and, in fact, is saying the right things on the matter. But obviously we can’t be so naive, because again, we don’t live in a perfect world. And we know this because Apple itself struggles in our actual world. For one elephant-in-the-room example, having to deal with the rules China imposes on Apple’s services if they wish to operate in that country.

Will China create new rules to get Apple to use their new functionality to find any sort of content they deem to be bad? Who knows. But we know they could, and we know they could compel Apple to follow such rules. That’s a nice way of saying force. Legally! Will Apple be willing to pull out of China over such a stance? Does that also mean they’ll move iPhone and other device manufacturing? These are real questions! And while again, we assume Apple is not nefarious, nefariousness and business reasons can sometimes look very similar. Because at the end of the day, who cares if you’re doing the wrong thing for a slightly less bad reason? You’re still doing the wrong thing.

Did Apple pre-brief China on these changes to get ahead of the issue by saying they would under-no-circumstances use such technology for anything beyond the stated purpose? Maybe! But would you feel better or worse about Apple pre-briefing and in essence, seeking permission on such a move?³ It’s a tough call! Also, how on Earth would you trust any country on such a matter? Things change all the time, as do those in power…

Two more quick thoughts on the matter.

First, while Apple already does notify authorities about such images in question that they find on iCloud servers, it’s fascinating just how few flags they send, certainly relative to their big tech peers. This suggests that criminals know not to use iCloud in this way. And as such, they’ll probably know not to use the iPhone itself in this new way. That may be a good thing in Apple’s book — drive the pedophiles elsewhere! But again, it’s potentially a massive trade-off for that upside (as it is if the upside is “fully” end-to-end iCloud).

Second, this is all more than a little ironic given the whole “backdoor” debate Apple forcefully stood up against when government agencies sought to force Apple to build in a way to get into iPhones. Tim Cook was adament that Apple had no way to do this, and should not build it. If they didn’t exactly just create a way, they created a huge loophole that officials are going to test like velociraptors against an electric fence. Until they find the weakness… That’s what Apple set up here. The thing they stood up against! Apple can say all the right things. They also have to abide by laws. And laws are man-made things. Which change.

Anyway, smarter people than myself have already made such points, and will continue to make such points. I think it’s worth piling-on because this is that important. But I also think it’s worth pointing out just how big of a mistake Apple made in announcing such changes the way they did. Obviously, this was going to be the reaction.

Read the fucking room, not our iPhones, one might say.

Published on August 9, 2021 📆
Written from London, England 🇬🇧
Written on a 2021 11-inch M1 iPad Pro ⌨️

¹ Which sounds decidedly like “cellphones”…

² I’m assuming they did brief at least some folks on the matter, but it honestly wasn’t enough. The negative headlines overwhelmed, which should have been obvious.

³ And here I’m reminded that Apple didn’t seek permission from their own carrier partners when they originally launched iMessage. They just did it. I’m guessing they did the same thing here — at least with China, presumably they did talk to U.S. authorities about this change…