I’ll repost my comment from the other post:

For people who have not read the article:

Forbes states that there is no indication that this app can or will “phone home”.

Its stated use is for other apps to scan an image they have access to find out what kind of thing it is (known as "classification"). For example, to find out if the picture you’ve been sent is a dick-pick so the app can blur it.

My understanding is that, if this is implemented correctly (a big ‘if’) this can be completely safe.

Apps requesting classification could be limited to only classifying files that they already have access to. Remember that android has a concept of “scoped storage” nowadays that let you restrict folder access. If this is the case, well it’s no less safe than not having SafetyCore at all. It just saves you space as companies like Signal, WhatsApp etc. no longer need to train and ship their own machine learning models inside their apps, as it becomes a common library / API any app can use.

It could, of course, if implemented incorrectly, allow apps to snoop without asking for file access. I don’t know enough to say.

Besides, you think that Google isn’t already scanning for things like CSAM? It’s been confirmed to be done on platforms like Google Photos well before SafetyCore was introduced, though I’ve not seen anything about it being done on devices yet (correct me if I’m wrong).

It may also be cheaper for the government as they wouldn’t need to spend so much on bureaucracy trying to figure out whether someone deserves money.

The councils pay landlords for 1 room in a 8+ room house.

In the area I’m thinking of, this costs £900 (or $1100) a month. For comparison,

• Council flats (1 person flat) cost £500-600/month
• Market rate for apartments is £1000 / month.

I think the absurd rate being charged for abysmal conditions is partially rationalised by the fact that it’s paid to those landlords on a daily basis, but it’s obviously completely inefficient.

I don’t want to go into the horrors of being in a homeless shelter, but it would be better for everyone involved if housing was more accessible.

I know someone who is homeless and sheltering them (in shit conditions) is costing the local council almost twice as much per month as just giving them an apartment.

What do you mean by “Citrons” that just means lemon in French and I’ve never heard it used in English.

Born to shit, forced to wipe