Microsoft PhotoDNA scanning problem

> Microsoft wanted me to confirm my age, that I was a "real person" along with identity. So Microsoft somehow reached out to the police department, based on my address information in my Microsoft accounts, with a check of some kind. I had to go to the local police department to verify who I was and my age. The police department told me it was odd. They are just following up on Microsoft complaint. This happened a few or so years ago. Microsoft confirmed my identity then. However, the Microsoft account profile photo issue still exists today.

You what now???

> Microsoft's PhotoDNA scanning is not just in OneDrive, through the Microsoft's eco-system. Basically, if you are using your Microsoft account to sign in to Windows 11, PhotoDNA scans your entire computer. This information came directly from Microsoft Support.

This sounds like a horrible privacy violation. Is it true? What do they do if they find a match?

the police part makes me really question what is going on here and the validity of this report.

if you get multiple child sexual abuse material (CSAM) matches, the police will be knocking on (down) your door. microsoft isnt going to nicely ask you to go down the the police station. they dont even contact local police, they forward the information to the appropriate national entity (e.g. NCMEC) who coordinates the law enforcement response.

and if it isnt CSAM related, microsoft is not going to be contacting your local police, period.

something isnt adding up here. i suspect this post is ragebait.

Blocking the account because the image was used by another account that had been suspended etc. sounds more like the specific image had been flagged as offensive while in use by that account, rather than it having anything to do with them establishing a relationship between the actual accounts

(If they established connections between accounts by using images, surely they would block vast swathes of people using generic harmless images you can find online)

Wait, reading between the lines it thinks his face is CSAM?

I guess its a hash collision, but that is pretty crazy. Sounds like the plot to a scifi dystopia.

This is why I regularly reset my face.

Is it a specific picture of the face or any picture of it?

Does this mean a Windows PC associated with a Microsoft account will scan images accessible on mapped file shares?

> I just do not know what to about it any longer. Each time I create a new Microsoft account

There’s your problem. Don’t create a Microsoft account? Why would you need one anyway? To use windows? Why? Get Linux or switch to Mac.

Ooph, what midlevel SWE at MS did he rub the wrong way..?

So... microsoft thinks he is too hot for them.

Why does he keep using that picture?

>I had at least 12 Microsoft accounts immediately closed

What?