At the time, Google assured me that SafetyCore was an enabling framework and would not actually start scanning photos or other content.

I audibly snorted at this.

Well that time has now come and it starts with Google Messages. As reported by 9to5Google, “Google Messages is rolling out Sensitive Content Warnings that blur nude images on Android.”

I know whenever my phone announces of its own accord that it’s figured out that an image on my phone is a nude, the first word that comes to mind is “safe.”

Google has been scanning your photos for a long time, both in the Gallery and the Photos app. Yes, with AI.

Unhinged behaviour that we just supposed to accept becuase a mega corpo is doing it?

Who asked for this?

I have started to leave google. Can I ask them to remove any scanned data?

George Orwell was off by a few decades, it seems.

On one hand, this is a huge grey zone in terms of privacy. But on the other hand, it's also a huge win for anybody who has had to endure unsolicited dick pics. I used to work with a woman who had a stalker that would send her "tribute" photos from spoofed numbers to appear as people in her contact list; this feature wouldn't have completely blocked the messages, but would have at least mitigated some of the trauma she went through.