“There is no evidence that local images on a Mac have identifiers computed and uploaded to Apple’s servers when viewed in Finder windows.”
The rumour rested on one Little Snitch alert. Testing in macOS 13.1 found no image analysis at all while browsing a Finder gallery, against more than 40,000 log entries. QuickLook does run Live Text on every preview, and the image with handwriting made an outgoing connection lasting 58 ms. Apple earned this paranoia when it announced it would scan photos for CSAM.