Apple’s Deleting iCloud Emails That Contain The Phrase 'Barely Legal Teens'(cultofmac.com)

464 pointsby rdlvor 13 Jahren385 comments

Apple’s Deleting iCloud Emails That Contain The Phrase 'Barely Legal Teens'

http://www.cultofmac.com/217557/apples-deleting-icloud-emails-that-contain-the-phrase-barely-legal-teens/

385 comments

tolmaskyvor 13 Jahren

Its hard to know what to be more amazed about: the fact that with one boneheaded filter Apple now seems creepier than Google in terms of respecting your privacy (one of the few things they could boast about), or the fact that it still seems to be amateur hour over at iCloud. Think about it for a second: they are literally pushing code into production that amounts to if (contents.indexOf(bad_phrase) != -1) delete_email();. How is the takeaway not anything other than "Of course Siri and Maps are a disaster, they can't even filter email in a more complex fashion than 1993."

joptvor 13 Jahren

Spam filter. It's disappointing someone seriously believes this is some sort of "objectionable content" censorship. Namely because that's easy enough to test:

"barely legal teens" isn't delivered (edit: now does)

"actually illegal teens" arrives

...along with everything else of the sort (that I've tested).

Surely the phrase was blacklisted by some algorithm after it occurred verbatim in massive amounts of spam.

da_nvor 13 Jahren

Tangentially related, but emails are often auto-deleted by 'cloud' email services (Hotmail, Google etc) when the email is sent from a server-side script like PHP mail(), therefore it is not unheard of for emails to be auto-deleted when it is very likely to be spam. I don't know how the iCloud spam filtering works, but I wonder if there is a block filter being run before the check is done to see if the sender is a known contact (to bypass the spam check). 'barely legal teens' seems like a phrase that would almost certainly be flagged as spam. Perhaps this is just a badly implemented spam system at work (which wouldn't surprise me given Apple's reputation for web services)?

jijjivor 13 Jahren

That's one way to prevent spam from coming in. Next you'll find them blocking all chinese netblocks.

[deleted]vor 13 Jahren

JagMickervor 13 Jahren

"You just got iPlowed"

(Scroogle satire)

arnvor 13 Jahren

Isn't this a spam blocking technique?

kmfrkvor 13 Jahren

Isn't this Mobile Me all over again?

ianstallingsvor 13 Jahren

Solution: Don't use iCloud.

rm999vor 13 Jahren

Everything about icloud - from the terrible design to the clunky interface - is as Steve Jobs liked to say, "shit". I have icloud and I'm not even sure what it's for; is it a backup service, an e-mail provider, or a way to find my phone? None of these have much in common, so the fact that they're all bundled together really confuses me. And its name is a bit of a misnomer, you can't even do standard cloud stuff like share photos (like you could with mobileme).

I don't mean to stray off-topic, but this article just confirms my intuition to avoid anything with icloud in the name.

eykanalvor 13 Jahren

In reading this, all I can think of is "buttbuttination" and the broader Scunthorpe problem [1] (to use Wikipedia's term). Strange that Apple is using such a crude filtration technique.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

digitalengineervor 13 Jahren

Scanning and auto-deleting your email, combined with the Gatekeeper technology wich houses the possibility of Apple telling me what Apps I can or can not run makes me seriously start to wonder the direction Apple is headed...

Edit: Gatekeeper is OSX technology. It allows users to only install Apple certified Apps on your mac, not your phone. It's fairly new and possible to turn it off (for now at least).

aesvor 13 Jahren

I tested this on my @me.com account, and it's exactly how it works. Email containing the words "barely legal teens" is simply dropped.

I find it obscene to an Orwellian extent that Apple actually seems to think that no valid email would ever contain the words "barely legal teens". I wonder what other things Apple thinks are not worth talking about?

I have no trust in Apple's email services any more.

mikestewvor 13 Jahren

Great, now I'm tempted to spend way too much time experimenting to find other banned phrases. :-P But sure enough, whether it's buried in a bunch of lorem ipsum or standing alone, that phrase will send your mail to the ether. It never showed in Junk, it just never came across the wire at all. Edit: this behavior goes in both directions, BTW; receive or send.

I'd be willing to write it off as a one-time error on the part of some individual contributor, but what else will get your mail deleted? Since there are no checks in place for "rogue" ICs adding phrases on server-side, what will cause stuff to go missing tomorrow?

petercoopervor 13 Jahren

Why do they mention "child pornography"? Maybe I'm wrong but isn't "barely legal" meant to mean 18 year old adults and not "nearly legal"? Or is it just a common code phrase child pornographers use I wasn't aware of?

opminionvor 13 Jahren

M-x spook

[deleted]vor 13 Jahren

seivanvor 13 Jahren

This is bad, I actually like iCloud, even the email client, calendar and address book. But I don't want them deleting emails like this... hm.

brunorsinivor 13 Jahren

Clarke has just sold his afterlife iPhone.

Falling3vor 13 Jahren

Is anyone else being driven crazy by the cursor style on this page? I think it's hitting on a new ocd...

NicoJuicyvor 13 Jahren

Haha, the Dictator Apple is going to mess with your mails... Awesome, you get what you pay for, i guess :P

lignuistvor 13 Jahren

Censorship is always stupid. Censorship based on nothing than words or phrases is simply embarrassing.

nicholassmithvor 13 Jahren

I know everyone is rushing to decry Apple and their draconian behaviour ("first they took my unsigned apps, now they want in my email? TO THE PITCHFORKS!") but the likelyhood is someone has fiddled with the spam filtering and they've broken something. If the first thing you jump to is some conspiracy you're ignoring the simple rule of technology that behind every good wild goose chase is a member of staff who's quickly hitting 'roll back changes'.

[deleted]vor 13 Jahren

erodevor 13 Jahren

Isn't the point of "barely legal teens" that they are indeed legal? On what grounds can they delete discussions of legal content?

squozzervor 13 Jahren

Some of us are old enough to remember the Calvin Klein ads with the girl in the "Catholic schoolgirl" uniform with her white panties showing. I had to admit at first glance I thought CK was using someone underage. It provoked a bit of reaction from the demagogues. Since then, the "barely legal" motif has had a bit of radioactivity hanging on it. The popularity of Manga didn't seem to help.

lorenzfxvor 13 Jahren

One more reason why you should run your own mail server. I guess if it would take less time more people were doing it (I'm not either at the moment).

B-Convor 13 Jahren

> After more research, Steven found that under the iCloud terms of service, Apple reserves the right to remove any content at any time that it feels is objectionable, without telling you that they’re going to delete it.

Today it's a bad search filter, but tomorrow... what'll they do tomorrow?

Apple is the epitome of "we'll do what we think is best and you'll like it". For now they usually seem to have admirable (or semi-admirable) goals, even if you don't agree with them on the details. I'm curious how long until they make similar moves that are clearly Evil(TM).

dansovor 13 Jahren

So, does this filter work for "not legal teens" or "totally illegal teens"? Because if not, that would be highly ironic.

cjivor 13 Jahren

They also (used to) block you from receiving e-mail with "fuck" in the subject line. I had an amusing conversation with support about this and they said it's part of their spam filter. I just re-tested this and the e-mail eventually came through to my spam folder.