Hi
I use a lot of FLOSS alternatives to proprietary applications. However, I do use the Photos app on macOS (and very rarely on my iPhone). I have disabled all cloud features in Photos.app and am wondering how bad Apple’s local Photos app really is?
What reasons do I have to migrate away from it?
Thanks
Mostly, it’s closed source. There’s very little evidence that it’s non-private in any way.
Overall Apple still has a good track record on the privacy front.
It does analyse things like faces and tries to identify and rember specific people.
Features like Enhanced Visual Search and other AI/AI-adjascent tools can be used to identify certain metadata and potentially feed that to Apple.
But Apple claims to put in a lot of effort to do that type of stuff on device or via privacy preserving means and there is no evidence thus far to the contrary.
Apple does however have direct access to any photo saved on iCloud without Advanced Data Protection enabled.
A key reason I might refuse to use it, having recently started migrating my photo’s to Mac (away from Microsoft) is the lack of cross platform support.
I’m not sure if the Photo Library is just some sort of folder or archive in the back end, but the obfuscation isn’t appreciated.
I can migrate a folder from one operating system to another without much hassle but it’s hard to tell whether I can do the same to a photo library.
For the record, even privacy-preserving apps like Ente do this. These features don’t affect your privacy as long as all is done on the device.
I recommend @Kris to learn more about how macOS works. The Visual Look Up feature may raise your eyebrow. It works with any photos, not just photos in the Photos app.
Clicking on a Visual Search Hint initiates a network connection to provide information about that object, displayed in a floating window.
PS: To clarify, your images aren’t sent to Apple. For example, if your image has a Bombay cat, then information about Bombay cats is pulled from the internet to show you.
To be fair, Apple is very transparent about it in its privacy policy. The modern Spotlight Search works with images, too. To turn it off, go to System Settings → Spotlight → Siri Suggestions (a dumb name for a feature that’s not related to Siri). Also, when in here, make sure to toggle off Help Apple Improve Search, too. The Websites option also needs internet access to function for obvious reasons. Spotlight Search can search the internet. There are reasons why there’s a rumor that Apple will make a search engine that’s rival Google.
If they have to choose between convenience and privacy, Apple will always choose convenience because, let’s be honest here, it’s clear that convenience sells better than privacy. It’s just that their business model allows them to be more privacy-preserving than other big techs. Their goal is still to make every human on earth own Apple devices, not protect human rights like privacy.
Well you would have to trust Apple for one. Seeing how they have lied in the past to the entire world but more importantly to their customers. So if you have moved on and accepted apologies from them for their previous “miscommunications" ex. manipulating users by intentionally slowing down older iPhone models through software updates, which made their devices appear to have degraded battery performance. Also known as “throttling” from which they did not disclose to users, leading many to believe their batteries were failing. So what would the average Apple user do in that situation? Most likely buy a newer model iPhone! or a less likely scenario but still a small possibility buy a new genuine Apple battery. Either way, scamming users into purchasing their products (fingers crossed their customers would just BUY A NEW DEVICE! Studies have shown that around 70% to 80% of iPhone users tend to upgrade to a newer iPhone model when they decide to replace their device and Apple sure as hell knew/knows this. Android users are like 50% to 60%. My apologies as I have digressed from the pertinent subject matter.
So if you can get over that little “miscommunication” because after all, they did this “to protect users and ensure the safety and longevity of their devices". You know, instead of telling the users the truth and letting them decide for themselves. But let’s say your over whole “batterygate" there are the following (and i won’t go into detail for these other ones I will just fire them off, in no particular order:
repairability issues, App store policies, privacy concerns, lack of customization, transition to subscription services.
I feel like I should elaborate on these but this has been long enough. I will quickly say that the privacy concerns with Apple after folding so easily and removing their e2ee for users in Europe should be of a big concern for anyone who uses an iPhone. They talk a big security and privacy game but when push comes to shove, it’s all just about control for them and thats why I believe they are trying to push back against the government in Europe, but the damage has already been done. Maybe they should have pushed back right off the get go, instead of just removing end to end encryption from users. Too little too late, they are probably only fighting in court to say that they “tried their best" (which would be another lie)
You tell me how bad Apple’s local photo app is!! I haven’t touched an iPhone in many many years!! It’s probably just as good as Googles!!!