I was listening to the podcast Upgrade with Jason Snell and Myke Hurley this week and I honestly don’t know how Jason didn’t just start banging his head against the wall listening to Myke. Myke seems intent on closing his eyes to reality. Anytime that Jason brought up a fact, Myke refused to engage and simply responded with “No one understands that” or “that doesn’t matter”. How can you reason with someone who refuses to discuss the facts?
I once stood in line at the grocery store behind a young mother with her 4-year old son. The boy had grabbed a candy bar and was crying because his mother told him to put it back. The boy tried to change his mother’s mind by informing her that he really wanted the candy bar. When she told him to put it back for the 3rd time he upped his argument with “but I really, really, want it”. It didn’t work.
That little boy perfectly represents Myke’s argument when Jason informed him that anyone who doesn’t want their iCloud upload scanned can shut it off at any time. Myke’s response to Jason was that it wasn’t a viable solution because Myke really, really, likes iCloud backups.
Most people I’ve heard who were up in arms about Apple’s new CSAM policy at least have the excuse that they didn’t really understand what was going on. At first, I was incensed that Apple was going to scan my iPhone’s pictures. I was ready to start hammering my keyboard with a fiery hot take on how this was a dangerous encroachment on my privacy. Scared parents everywhere were worried that those innocent pictures of their kids in the bathtub were going to get them reported to the police.
Later, when I realized that the policy only applied to iCloud uploads, I understood it better. Of course, Apple is going to prevent illegal material from residing on their devices. Imagine that you rented a storage unit in town to hold some furniture. Those storage unit businesses have policies against storing illegal substances. If they think you have a dead body in there, they’re going to break in and call the police. That storage unit belongs to them, not you. Apple is no different. Other companies like Facebook already do the same.
Your iPhone belongs to you. But the iCloud servers belong to Apple. You can store what you want on your iPhone and Apple has no say on what that should be. But when you rent server space from Apple, you are leaving your device just like taking furniture down to a storage unit.
Myke also says that he doesn’t like Apple’s stance on CSAM because it looks like Apple is practicing CYA and not really interested in stopping child porn. What?! This is illogical to the max. First, Myke accuses Apple of infringing on his privacy when they aren’t, then he throws stones at Apple for not infringing on everyone’s privacy.
Of course Apple is against CSAM. But Apple also believes that that they have no right to scan people’s devices because the right to privacy is one of their core beliefs. This core pillar of privacy is so strong at Apple that it even trumps looking for child porn. Apple’s commitment to privacy couldn’t be any more obvious. Myke should be praising Apple, not casting illogical aspersions.
When Jason told Myke that Apple wasn’t scanning his iPhone, but only the iCloud upload, Myke simply said that no one understands the difference. When confronted with the reality that anyone can turn iCloud uploads off in about 2 seconds, he also says that doesn’t matter. Myke is one of those people to whom facts don’t matter. Instead of allowing irrefutable facts to influence his beliefs, he says that evidence which contradicts his belief must not matter.
What is my response to people who refuse to consider the irrefutable facts? Their opinion doesn’t matter.
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