Apple faces a $32.5 billion lawsuit over how its Photos app scans and stores faces. A federal judge cleared the case to proceed as a class action late last month, allowing millions of Illinois iPhone owners to join.
The case has been years in the making, and Apple has fought to shut it down at nearly every turn. Now it heads back to the court, with the company’s privacy practices on trial.
Apple spent the majority of WWDC26’s opening keynote talking about Siri AI, Apple Intelligence upgrades, Liquid Glass refinements and performance enhancements. But iOS 27 packs much more than that. There are several smaller changes that Apple did not talk about onstage.
Here are some of the best hidden iOS 27 features you might have missed.
As an iPhone user, Apple Photos and iCloud Photos provide a great way to view, edit and back up all your precious pictures. But as a long-time Google Photos user, I find the Apple Photos experience lacking in many respects. In the great Apple Photos vs. Google Photos debate, Apple doesn’t emerge as a clear winner.
Below are five features Apple Photos must steal from Google Photos to win me over.
It’s now possible to transfer images and videos stored on Google Photos directly into iCloud Photos. Apple and Google cooperated to make this possible.
Wow, these two rivals actually worked together on something.
Apple completely abandoned its previously announced plan to scan iCloud Photos libraries for child sexual abuse material. The company will not go through users’ pictures on its cloud-storage servers looking for CSAM images.
Instead, Apple is going the opposite direction by enabling users to encrypt pictures stored in iCloud Photos.
Thanks to cooperation between Apple and Microsoft, the Windows 11 Photos app is now able to access photos and videos from iCloud.
This is one of several recent cross-platform collaboration moves by the two tech titans.
Although Apple announced iOS 16 at WWDC22 and released it on September 12, not all promised features made their way into the first public build.
With iOS 16.1, which just became available Monday, Apple delivered many such promised features. Once you install it on your iPhone, check out the five iOS 16.1 features you should try right away.
Apple on Friday confirmed it has delayed controversial plans to start scanning user photos for child sexual abuse material, aka CSAM.
The feature was originally scheduled to roll out later this year. Apple now says it will take time to “collect input and make improvements” before deploying the changes. However, the feature is far from canceled altogether.
Apple defends its plan to scan user photos for child sexual abuse imagery in a newly published FAQ that aims to quell growing concerns from privacy advocates.
The document provides “more clarity and transparency,” Apple said, after noting that “many stakeholders including privacy organizations and child safety organizations have expressed their support” for the move.
The FAQ explains the differences between child sexual abuse imagery scanning in iCloud and the new child-protection features coming to Apple’s Messages app. It also reassures users that Apple will not entertain government requests to expand the features.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden and other privacy advocates are speaking out against Apple’s plan to scan user photos for child abuse imagery.
The move will turn everybody’s iPhone into an “iNarcs,” Snowden said on Twitter. “If they can scan for kiddie porn today, they can scan for anything tomorrow.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is also against the plan.