OS 13 Ventura
Thread Starter
OS 13 Ventura
I upgraded to this from OS12 Monterey 1.5 days ago and have been having a few issues, though nothing too bad, more glitchy than anything. What is noticeable is battery usage has gone up, though again i'm aware that as the new system beds in in the background extra power will be used for a few days. Anyone else experiencing the same ?
One of the new features is an improved search facility using Spotlight for the computer's disk(s). You can now type 'people flowers house' for example and all photos/images on the disk matching the words will be shown. I find that both impressive and a bit disconcerting . Only a year ago Apple released a feature that scanned all photos on an Apple device for possible images of pedophilia and if so found to alert the authorities. All well and good (I abhor child abuse and several other forms thereof), but it was revealed by some journalists and supposedly shelved after a backlash. The new feature in Ventura seems to be the same thing, but sold as a tool to help the user. Surely if EVERY image is scanned, recognised by the AI and categorised then that negates any privacy for the user ? Or am I misunderstanding the feature ?
One of the new features is an improved search facility using Spotlight for the computer's disk(s). You can now type 'people flowers house' for example and all photos/images on the disk matching the words will be shown. I find that both impressive and a bit disconcerting . Only a year ago Apple released a feature that scanned all photos on an Apple device for possible images of pedophilia and if so found to alert the authorities. All well and good (I abhor child abuse and several other forms thereof), but it was revealed by some journalists and supposedly shelved after a backlash. The new feature in Ventura seems to be the same thing, but sold as a tool to help the user. Surely if EVERY image is scanned, recognised by the AI and categorised then that negates any privacy for the user ? Or am I misunderstanding the feature ?
One of the things that your Mac needs to do after the upgrade is indexing. Basically it trawls through the stuff on your drive to create an index for Spotlight to use when you want to look something up. This is most likely what is causing the increase in power use, but keep an eye on things. It should go down after a while.
As for the search, Apple introduced a feature on iPhones a while ago that enabled text on images to be recognised. What you're seeing now is basically that feature, expanded a bit, rolled out to the Mac as well. As far as I know it uses the processing power of your own computer to recognise text and other features on images. This is something internal to your system and not shared with Apple's or anyone else's servers.
The feature you mentioned was (IIRC) about images shared to Apple's servers through iCloud and as you say, it was not taken up. To my knowledge, Apple is still the most trustworthy of the large media/internet/technology firms and the one most concerned about privacy. If you want to make sure about this, the best way is to sit down and have a good read of the terms of service for both your phone, your Mac and the iCloud services but don't blame me if they put you to sleep!
As for the search, Apple introduced a feature on iPhones a while ago that enabled text on images to be recognised. What you're seeing now is basically that feature, expanded a bit, rolled out to the Mac as well. As far as I know it uses the processing power of your own computer to recognise text and other features on images. This is something internal to your system and not shared with Apple's or anyone else's servers.
The feature you mentioned was (IIRC) about images shared to Apple's servers through iCloud and as you say, it was not taken up. To my knowledge, Apple is still the most trustworthy of the large media/internet/technology firms and the one most concerned about privacy. If you want to make sure about this, the best way is to sit down and have a good read of the terms of service for both your phone, your Mac and the iCloud services but don't blame me if they put you to sleep!
Thread Starter
My laptop has settled down on power consumption, although it seems to have needed several days to do so! Otherwise everything seems to be ok. Not sure I like the iPhone/Pad style system settings though, I preferred the old style, though have no issue with it on the iPhone/Pad.
As to the search facility in Spotlight, it really has collated EVERY image and allocated it under search terms. It's not perfect, but pretty darn accurate. As I said, I'm on the fence about the usefulness/invasion of privacy balance. I wonder if you can switch it on/off as so required ?
As to the search facility in Spotlight, it really has collated EVERY image and allocated it under search terms. It's not perfect, but pretty darn accurate. As I said, I'm on the fence about the usefulness/invasion of privacy balance. I wonder if you can switch it on/off as so required ?
Playing devil's advocate: for as many years as you have used a Mac(book), the Spotlight facility has indexed all your other files and what is in them. Why is it different when it also indexes your photos?
Thread Starter
Good question. I suppose that the files, if they have a title (assuming I was clever enough to do so ;-) ) are only known by their name, or file type if unlabelled, the contents unknown. The photos, in contrast are what they are and if the scanning AI is able to recognise what elements are in each image, there's no privacy to my mind. A text-type file could be labelled 'Birthday Party' but have 'macro-economic data 1975-1980', within. An image file is what it is, assuming that there's no hidden meaning involved, like some Dali surrealist painting!
Maybe Apple scan the contents of all files, who knows, but I'm assuming that they don't.
Maybe Apple scan the contents of all files, who knows, but I'm assuming that they don't.
Easy to check: create a Text, Pages or Word document with a unique name in it, but give it an innocuous filename. Then do a search for the name inside the document. I haven't tried it yet on my end but I'm pretty confident that Spotify will find the name 😉
Edit: I did a quick check but results are inconclusive so far. I tried some strings that should hide in various documents across my drive, but did not get all the results I was expecting. More research needed!
Edit: I did a quick check but results are inconclusive so far. I tried some strings that should hide in various documents across my drive, but did not get all the results I was expecting. More research needed!
Thread Starter
I did just that earlier and lo and behold, ANY word within that untitled file, within an erroneously labeled folder is found and revealed.....I don't possess too much in the way of very confidential documents, but all the same that's a bit unsettling. On the positive side I might be able to locate some of those misplaced, but with a vague memory files/documents from the past ;-)
... ANY word within that untitled file, within an erroneously labeled folder is found and revealed.
Thread Starter
Tbh, an index serves it's user(s) best when it provides the most information, but I would have thought that a file/document name would suffice for most in this regard, rather than every part of the contents therein. It seems to me that this kills any privacy that might be reasonably expected.
Thread Starter
I have no idea, but I hope so! I looked up a name earlier and whilst it found the documents, I was also offered several photos with that name somewhere within (street name/side of a lorry etc) highlighted by the AI search engine. Very impressive, but.....
