Apple turns iCloud into spy cloud, will start looking at public share links

If you share content using public iCloud links, Apple could soon be looking over your shoulder and checking for "harmful content." The iBiz announced plans to moderate publicly accessible iCloud share links in version 27.3 of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS on a support page published on Tuesday. To clarify, this applies only to iCloud content shared via links created to be accessible to anyone, as opposed to content shared directly with other people.

Items shared using Anyone with the Link will be checked by Apple for harmful content," Apple explained on the new help page without bothering to define what harmful content means. Based on the wording, it appears those checks will apply to all iCloud items shared using "Anyone with the Link," which Apple says it can also access. The company hasn't explained how the checks will work.

The share-with-anyone option removes end-to-end encryption from the shared item, Apple said, even if Advanced Data Protection, Apple's optional end-to-end encryption feature for supported iCloud data, remains enabled for the account.

If you try to upload harmful content, Apple reserves the right to move, refuse, modify, remove, or delete the content at any time," the help page continues, adding that the iMaker may also block or disable accounts associated with harmful content.

The company also said it reserves the right to involve law enforcement when necessary, suggesting that its undefined "harmful content" category could include child sexual abuse material (CSAM), malware, and other potentially unlawful content.

Without a proper definition of what it defines as harmful, however, iCloud users are essentially left at Apple's mercy: If it chooses to continue to bend the knee to the Trump administration, for example, content deemed objectionable by the standards of political figures could end up wiped out.

Apple also hasn't explained whether human moderators, automated systems, or both will be responsible for identifying and removing so-called harmful content, or whether any decisions will be left to AI, which can easily be fooled into making a bad moderation call.

The scanning of such content, as mentioned above, begins with version 27.3 of Apple's various OSes, which were released to developers in beta on Tuesday, with a general release expected in December.

Apple didn't respond to questions for this story. (R)