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jandrewrogers | on: Apple decided not to roll out Siri in EU after denied request for exemption
I understand Apple's position on this one. This is essentially a backdoor into all of your data. It is also a very useful feature. The EU regulators are disallowing guardrails without which this backdoor will be used to strip-mine people's personal data. The privacy implications are not legible to most people.

If I was more cynical I would suggest that this is being used as an end-run around encryption, since the encryption doesn't have backdoors for the government but this gives you access to all the same data.

When this backdoor is inevitably exploited in some very public fashion, it won't be the EU regulators that required the backdoor to exist who will be blamed.

simjnd | parent | next
It would only be a backdoor if it's implemented as a backdoor.

The way Apple Health exchanges data with 3rd-party trackers (Fitbit, Garmin, etc.) is very well built and a good model of how other components in iOS could allow data exchange with very granular permissions.

Apple touts the "Private Cloud Compute". If they found a way to share your personal context to process on their cloud in a private and anonymized way, there is no reason the same process couldn't be used to handoff data to a 3rd party AI provider.

jandrewrogers | root | parent | next
The technical problem is nothing like exchanging data with fitness trackers.

One of the issues here is that there are many people with strong opinions that don't understand the thing they have strong opinions about. Which is the normal state of human affairs.

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Petersipoi | root | parent
What?

You want Apple to anonymize a users data, then hand that users data to a third party who knows who the user is? I don't think PCC is doing what you think it's doing.

t-sauer | parent | next
> I understand Apple's position on this one

Well then explain me this: There are absolutely no restriction on MacOS where I can give Claude free access to everything. If you are a Mac and iPhone user that essentially gives it access to the exact same data. Why is the data only protect worthy when accessed on the phone directly?

hyperpape | root | parent | next
The Mac is a pre-existing platform that is both more capable than iOS, and had an existing user base that used apps that had much greater access. Apple’s attempts to lock down the Mac have met with poor adoption.

In exchange, it also less secure, less user friendly, and less popular.

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xlii | root | parent
There's SIP. Claude can't install kernel extension and you can. (... and it just hit me why Apple requires specific reboot procedure to disable it)
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flaunf221 | parent | next
> This is essentially a backdoor into all of your data.

This is the rhetoric used against right to repair. "What if enemies get access to our citizens' data if we allow anyone but us to repair your car?"

HappyPanacea | root | parent | next
I have never seen this argument against (admittedly I'm not big into such debates) right to repair, did it came up somewhere?
superxpro12 | root | parent
The hypocrisy is easily explained by the overall attack on ownership... you dont own your own data. you dont own your car, your phone, your pc. Everyone wants to own all your stuff...
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flumpcakes | parent | next
iPhones have pretty good privacy controls. I don’t see how they can’t extend those to cover AI apps. I imagine the settings menu will get bonkers though. User education about apps slurping up all your data is needed regardless. People just trust apple with their talk of private cloud computing.
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yxhuvud | parent | next
It is not prohibiting guard rails. It is prohibiting Siri getting preferred treatment to bypass said guard rails
InsideOutSanta | parent | next
How is it a backdoor if I, as my data's actual owner, intentionally provide access to my data?
andix | parent | next
> This is essentially a backdoor into all of your data.

No. Only if you would consider the Linux/macos/windows filesystem API a backdoor too. On your desktop any app with sufficient permissions can read all your data. Would you call that a backdoor?

| root | parent
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iAMkenough | parent
Why do you use the phrase backdoor?

Is Apple incapable of designing a permissions system that allows a user to grant access to email and messages to an app of their choice?

We already download apps and grant them permissions to subsections of personal data on our devices.

I don’t believe Apple is incapable of designing a system that respects a user’s choices and granted permissions.