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.

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jandrewrogers 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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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simjnd 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Indeed but you ignore my second paragraph: they have developed (and 3rd-party audited) a way to handoff all the data (parts of your Personal Context, etc.) to their cloud servers in a privacy preserving way on-device. Why couldn't the same process could be used to handoff the data to a 3rd-party AI provider? (genuine why, if you have an understanding of the thing you have a strong opinion about I'd genuinely appreciate the answer)

It looks like Apple is framing this as a privacy issue as a marketing tactic so that consumers will blame the EU when Apple COULD implement it without endangering privacy.

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theshrike79 an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Apple PCC is using completely mad and paranoid amounts of security down to hardware and firmware level making sure nobody at any point of the supply chain can access the data.

EU can’t and won’t enforce the same rigour for 3rd party cloud AI. Which is the problem for Apple.

If said 3rd party service leaks private data, guess which company is going to be in the BIG HEADLINE and which one will hardly be mentioned in the news?

	▲	benoau an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		They've just announced PCC for Google Cloud using Nvidia GPUs and Intel CPUs so it would probably run on just about anything - https://security.apple.com/blog/expanding-pcc/
	▲	simjnd 13 minutes ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Ah, I see. I overestimated the amount of stripping / anonymization that was being done on device. Thought the server-side could be quite generic. Thanks!
	▲	bigyabai an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> EU can’t and won’t enforce the same rigour for 3rd party cloud AI. Which is the problem for Apple. Why should they? If the user decides to trust a third party, Apple shouldn't retain veto power for the customer's choice. This is how macOS treats apps like OpenClaw. It can absolutely work for iOS too.

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JumpCrisscross an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Why couldn't the same process could be used to handoff the data to a 3rd-party AI provider?

You have more safeguards if it’s running on your own metal. It’s reasonable to want to understand that better, perhaps with your own red team, before opening up customer data to actual potential hostiles.

	▲	simjnd 13 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah I overestimated the amount of stripping / anonymization that was being done on device and didn't realize how much plumbing was required server-side too to have good enough privacy guarantees

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spullara an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The 3rd party firm is the one that wants the data. No need for someone to steal it from them.