I wonder what prompted this from Apple and how big an issue they have on their hands.
My guess: people using public iCloud photo album links to share problematic images/videos on other online platforms. Whatsapp (for example) can review images posted on their chat groups, but it's much more difficult for them to review images which are hosted elsewhere.
I could be quite ignorant here but considering the start of this a while ago was the fear that Apple would scan your entire photo library without consent, I feel like this is fair trade. It makes sense that the quite literal public link, open to anyone, is also accessible to Apple. Also makes sense that with this public link directly connected to Apple, they want to ensure that they arent complicit in anything illegal or harmful. I would be curious what their actual definition of "harmful" is though.
I also appreciate that they explicitly mark out the difference between sharing with "People you choose" and "Anyone with link". I'd love to hear other people's thoughts, I know the opinions on Apple are very diverse lmao
> considering the start of this a while ago was the fear that Apple would scan your entire photo library without consent, I feel like this is fair trade.
The first is that since they were going to implement a much more intrusive approach but halted due to incredible backlash from users and the tech community it’s OK that they now implement a much less intrusive approach.
> It makes sense that the quite literal public link, open to anyone, is also accessible to Apple.
The second is that a publicly accessible link is very much not the same as “open to anyone”, the link itself is the knowledge gate required to access the data.
Let’s say I use iCloud and need to share my tax documents with my accountant who doesn’t use iPhone/Mac. I turn on public link sharing temporarily with the knowledge that only people who have the link could access it, thereby still being secure so long as neither party is careless in their distribution of the link.
My expectation as a user is that only those with the exact link can view my tax documents. But as it stands, Apple is now using their privileged position as iCloud administrator to unencrypt my file and scan it simply because the link is stored in their database.
Publicly accessible != publicly distributed
> When you share content that’s stored in iCloud, such as a photo in iCloud Photos or a file in iCloud Drive, you can choose to Share a Link or Send a Copy of the item. If you choose Share a Link, you can either share the item with “People you choose” — only people you invite or approve — or with “Anyone with the link," which makes it accessible to anyone who has the link, including Apple.
> My expectation as a user is that only those with the exact link can view my tax documents
Security through obscurity has never worked. Access control lists do.
Period.
[0] I tried deleting Apple Maps on a mac as root. It can't be done. I don't own this box. Apple does.
We will give you super powerful box, with pretty decent OS, but you do not have full control of box. Apple is quite an interesting company when you think about it from that high level