Surveillance in Your Pocket : The Dangers of AI-Integrated Devices

Introduction

The world eagerly welcomes new tech marvels like the iPhone 16 and Windows Co-Pilot, celebrating their advanced interfaces and innovative capabilities. But if you're using these devices that have embedded AI like Apple Intelligence or Windows Co-Pilot, for you, end-to-end encryption is officially dead. We must now confront a stark reality: these AIs are silently observing every interaction on your device, reshaping the landscape of security and privacy.

The Rise of AI Surveillance and Client-Side Scanning

"We aim to create a true AI companion—one that sees what you see, hears what you hear, and lives life alongside you," proclaimed Mustafa Slan, CEO of Microsoft AI. In plain terms, this means AI will know everything you do, watch, listen to, or type as well as what is going on in your immediate surrounding.

This invasive evolution began with client-side scanning and has now expanded into AI-managed client-side scanning. We are entering a new world. Even for those of us who don't use these dangerous devices, it will now be important to know who you're talking to and what device they use, because without your knowledge, you can get compromised.

The common retort, "I have nothing to hide," reflects a dangerous naivety. Those with "nothing to hide" unknowingly pave the way for widespread mass surveillance. Their complicity ensures that the majority will live under the ever-watchful eyes of AI, rendering true freedom and sovereignty increasingly difficult.

Private Conversations No Longer Safe

Imagine receiving a Signal message from a friend with a new iPhone 16, containing deeply private information meant only for your ears. Unbeknownst to you, this sensitive exchange is immediately logged at Apple Headquarters. Deleting the message changes nothing; the spyware has already cataloged the data. Encrypted apps become futile when the AI is monitoring screens and conversations in real time.

The CIA’s Surveillance Agenda

The CIA has long sought ways to bypass encryption, previously relying on costly exploits like Pegasus malware. Such state-level hacks targeted high-value individuals, not the masses. This kind of attack is a state-level hack that results in millions in payments to the creator of Pegasus, but it is not a mass surveillance tool like what is coming—the AI companion in your pocket who knows your every thought and every interaction on your device.

The FBI’s Client-Side Scanning Push

The three-letter agencies began to promote a solution to the public. They said the solution to breaking into encryption was to read the content pre-encryption.

So, in case you don’t understand what this means, it translates to capturing content locally on a device and reporting what’s in that content before it is sent through whatever encrypted app.

A few years ago, Apple announced the solution, which we all now refer to as client-side scanning. This is almost a direct response to what CIA director Brennan was asking for. The original communicated solution was that your photo content would be scanned on your local device, and then based on criteria provided by Apple, it could see if there’s some content there that’s deemed « illegal ».

How does it work ? : Apple sends a list of things to scan for to every iPhone in existence, and using image AI, it would then report if the search criteria matches. If it matches, then the phone would be reported to Apple HQ, and at the time they said they would forward that information to law enforcement.

The stated purpose of this technology was to scan for illegal photos of children called CSEM, but this reveals some facts that you have to know. First, Apple can give instructions to your phones to scan for any particular content. The fact that they use the CSEM example does not preclude it from scanning your photos for, let’s say, general nudity or even political content. All it means is that a channel was built in for the phones to report to Apple HQ. This channel supposedly is encrypted, so we’re not able to observe the traffic. Again, from history, we now know that this client-side scanning module is called Media Analysis D and is running both on macOS (Apple Silicon (M1, M2, etc.) and iOS. So, this is some sort of image processing AI—a low-level AI that is not an LLM.

Apple stated, by the way, that they suspended the CSEM project, but anyone with a Mac can easily see that Media Analysis D continues to run and cannot be stopped. So, even a few years back, it is clear that client-side scanning was already built into iOS, and that seemed to only focus on image scanning.

Windows Co-Pilot: A New Era of AI Surveillance

Microsoft’s Windows Co-Pilot heralds an even more invasive era. Combining screenshot analysis, keylogging, voice recognition, and AI processing, it creates a profile of everything you see, say, or do. This integration aligns with the chilling mantra: "See what you see, hear what you hear, know what you know."

So, while the old photo client-side scanning on Apple devices simply examined images in your file system, the new version of this now involves AI. Let me remind you again that Bill Gates was absolutely in support of being able to break encryption on devices, so this would be consistent with Microsoft’s objectives and Apple’s now as well.

AI can now observe everything you do, and because it no longer runs at the app level, it is able to intercept your traffic through the same interfaces you use: the screen, the keyboard, the speakers, and the microphone.

Always-On Surveillance: The iPhone 16 and Beyond

With the introduction of Apple Intelligence and Windows Co-Pilot, these devices have become perpetual spies. Microphones, cameras, and sensors remain active, gathering and analyzing data continuously. Apple and Microsoft claim this information never leaves your device, but such assurances are misleading. The AI itself can relay flagged content to central servers without users’ knowledge.

I'll give you an example that China would love to ask: Find people in China that have mentioned or are discussing the Tiananmen Square massacre. In China, it is illegal to discuss this, as it is something they intend to erase from history. So, those wanting to discuss this will now have to go to an isolated countryside with no devices, because their own phones and their friend’s can now spy on them.The reach of this technology extends far beyond safety; it ushers in a dystopian reality of thought policing.

For example, if there are nude photos on your phone, it is expected that only the AI can see it, and your photos won’t be forwarded to Apple. But Apple can ask which phones have nude photos and more precisely what other specific things are found in those photos beyond just nudity. How about describing the age and gender of the parties, their facial expressions, and sounds heard? Are there guns or other weapons?

It should be obvious, too, that this technology has now evolved. The iPhone 16, just like Windows, has a device that’s always listening :

• The microphone is always on,

• the camera is always on,

• the infrared sensor is always on,

• the location is always on.

So, beyond just scanning photos, the new tech means your AI companion is practically alive. Any wrong move or wrong thought from you will potentially trigger the thought police.

AI, Privacy, and Encryption: The Threat Posed by Embedded Surveillance

What can Apple HQ ask the AI?

The AI can:

• read passwords,

• see your seed in your crypto wallet,

• see your bank account.

• See what you type, what website and specific content you watch or listen to etc.

• What people are saying in your surrounding and other audio clues etc.

There is absolutely nothing that can be secret if you do it on the device or within the sensing capability of the device.

So when you get an iPhone 16, this is what you’re buying: a tool of enslavement with your own money, supposedly because you can now take better pictures and have better « free products » and a free « AI personal assistant »…The first step that gives us a clue of the danger of this AI technology is when the AI becomes your friend and now here we are.

The practical effect of this technology is that presumably the bulk of the population will be using a tainted device in a few years. The majority of people will have an AI companion device. We know that end-to-end encryption still works, assuming there is no spyware watching your screen or capturing your keystrokes, but now it is not sufficient to know that your device itself is safe. Everyone participating in an encrypted conversation needs to also be on a safe device—a device with no embedded AI companion.

For example, this would be a Linux PC or a degoogled phone. The next step in Freedom Tech, the only safe apps will be the ones that will detect if people you are conversing with are on a safe device, and if not, then you should assume your conversation is not a secret. In the meantime, tell your friends that if they want safe conversations and protect their privacy (and future security), they cannot be on :

• an iPhone 16,

• nor use Windows Co-Pilot on a Co-Pilot PC,

• nor use Mac OS on an M Silicon Mac.

Eventually, we likely have to add Google Gemini to this list, using the Pixel 9 Pro.

Between Security and Unawareness: How Surveillance Becomes Invisible and Ubiquitous

Naive individuals who remain unaware of what is unfolding right before their eyes will all become “agents” (as seen metaphorically in the 1999 dystopian film The Matrix) of the mass surveillance program that is about to be deployed, without even realizing it, as they already do—only now on a much more severe level. Much like the characters in the movie who do not realize they are living in a controlled simulation, these individuals fail to see that, on a daily basis, they are feeding a surveillance system that goes far beyond their simple use of technology. The expansion of facial recognition systems, ubiquitous voice assistants, and the management of location data are just a few examples of an evolving program that is gradually reshaping the power dynamics between citizens and institutions.

Every interaction with these devices becomes a contribution—whether voluntary or not—to an increasingly sophisticated global surveillance network. At a more alarming level, this program no longer limits itself to data extraction: it aims to shape society, turning each user into a link in this invisible chain of control.

Temporarily, until other solutions arise, older iPhones will still be acceptable, as well as older Google Android phones, DeGoogle phones, and Linux will remain safe. But we must stay fully vigilant and aware, arming ourselves with Freedom Tech tools as they appear in response to this dystopian societal model orchestrated by a lawless, minority oligarchy.

Source and inspiration : Rob Braxman