> it's doing image recognition on all pictures somewhere
It's doing it on the device.
An On-device Deep Neural Network for Face Detection
Apple’s iCloud Photo Library is a cloud-based solution for photo and video storage. However, due to Apple’s strong commitment to user privacy, we couldn’t use iCloud servers for computer vision computations. Every photo and video sent to iCloud Photo Library is encrypted on the device before it is sent to cloud storage, and can only be decrypted by devices that are registered with the iCloud account. Therefore, to bring deep learning based computer vision solutions to our customers, we had to address directly the challenges of getting deep learning algorithms running on iPhone.
I didn't mean "might be in the cloud", I meant in the context of the parent poster saying "I will never use facial recognition or Siri" - Siri is a thing you have to call up to use it, but facial recognition is "happening somewhere in the device" without having to open the Photos app or any other app and ask it to run.
It's doing it on the device.
An On-device Deep Neural Network for Face Detection
Apple’s iCloud Photo Library is a cloud-based solution for photo and video storage. However, due to Apple’s strong commitment to user privacy, we couldn’t use iCloud servers for computer vision computations. Every photo and video sent to iCloud Photo Library is encrypted on the device before it is sent to cloud storage, and can only be decrypted by devices that are registered with the iCloud account. Therefore, to bring deep learning based computer vision solutions to our customers, we had to address directly the challenges of getting deep learning algorithms running on iPhone.
https://machinelearning.apple.com/2017/11/16/face-detection....