Trump Team Has Full Meltdown Over CNN Story on ICE-Tracking App
Technology
146
Beiträge
83
Kommentatoren
0
Aufrufe
-
apple is the majority of the market, no? so if e.g. a company wanted to get a product out for a client asap, apple would be the market to aim for.
im not a developer or a genius but I'm pretty sure you can write an app once using a framework like react native or whatever and then compile it for both android and ios and optionally release them along with the source code used to compile them
-
This post did not contain any content.
This gives honeypot vibes. IOS only with no way to access via browser?
-
Turn of your capitalism brain ffs. This is not the place for companies and markets. If there is a financial interest then the app is worthless by design. iOS is not a trustable platform for anything security related so obviously you shouldnt use it for anything that concerns your physical safety. Dont forget, apple will always bend the knee to governments in the end.
You see "market" and think capitalism. By market, I meant, market-share. More users of apple products than android. So if a developer wanted greater reach...
-
the honey pot for what? people who don't like ice? that makes no sense
They could argue that attempting to track ICE is illegal, and all those using the app are to be arrested and tried for their crimes.
-
the honey pot for what? people who don't like ice? that makes no sense
Secret police would probably have an interest in lists of people downloading an app tracking their movements no? Particularly if it was downloaded to a mobile tracking device they carry with themselves at most times.
-
Was curious so Iooked up the app's site.
Apparently the devs claim they can't release it on Android because "There's no way to be anonymous on the play store", but it's even more impossible to be anonymous on the platform they've released.
That's how you know the developer is incredibly stupid and/or shady as hell- because they've never even heard of Fdroid?Makes me think the app is a troll/trojan horse (not as in infection, trojan horse as in it has alterior motives)
The Drumpf crew "losing it" over the app just makes it more questionable. They love to create a firestorm so people talk about the thing "they definitely don't want you to use!!" to get people to do things...
they mentioned that its because push notifications require device id and that would make it easy to be tracked if aubpoenaed.
ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app)
Sorry, there will not be an Android version because there is no way to provide 100% anonymity. Each person's device ID would have to be stored and that information becomes discoverable should the government issue a subpoena. Only iOS made this possible and completely protects the users.
Bluesky Social (bsky.app)
-
they mentioned that its because push notifications require device id and that would make it easy to be tracked if aubpoenaed.
ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app)
Sorry, there will not be an Android version because there is no way to provide 100% anonymity. Each person's device ID would have to be stored and that information becomes discoverable should the government issue a subpoena. Only iOS made this possible and completely protects the users.
Bluesky Social (bsky.app)
Interesting, especially with GrapheneOS people shooting it down immediately to call them out on their baloney.
-
This is a really good comment
Thanks. Remember to always question everything. Especially when that -something- sounds like BS.
-
You see "market" and think capitalism. By market, I meant, market-share. More users of apple products than android. So if a developer wanted greater reach...
Android has the greatest mobile OS market share by a massive margin.
But Apple users are far more likely to spend money on apps, making Apple the most lucrative target for mobile developers to target first.
-
Was curious so Iooked up the app's site.
Apparently the devs claim they can't release it on Android because "There's no way to be anonymous on the play store", but it's even more impossible to be anonymous on the platform they've released.
That's how you know the developer is incredibly stupid and/or shady as hell- because they've never even heard of Fdroid?Makes me think the app is a troll/trojan horse (not as in infection, trojan horse as in it has alterior motives)
The Drumpf crew "losing it" over the app just makes it more questionable. They love to create a firestorm so people talk about the thing "they definitely don't want you to use!!" to get people to do things...
There's no way to be anonymous on the play store
Aurora store.
-
This is IOS only owing to Android play store collecting a device identifier; the creator wanted complete anonymity
Quote from some other place people were discussing it. Unfortunately no source on it.
It's 1000% possible to use android apps without involving Google in any way.
-
they mentioned that its because push notifications require device id and that would make it easy to be tracked if aubpoenaed.
ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app)
Sorry, there will not be an Android version because there is no way to provide 100% anonymity. Each person's device ID would have to be stored and that information becomes discoverable should the government issue a subpoena. Only iOS made this possible and completely protects the users.
Bluesky Social (bsky.app)
Push notifications though GMS don't use the device ID; they use a generated GCM registration ID that occasionally rotates. Who knows what Google uses internally to associate GCM reg IDs to users, but to overly state that it uses device IDs is simply not correct.
I'm not suggesting push notifications are inherently secure because it's impossible to make that determination from the outside. But their assessment is incorrect and the same privacy concerns apply to Apple.
-
apple is the majority of the market, no? so if e.g. a company wanted to get a product out for a client asap, apple would be the market to aim for.
Not even close.
-
they mentioned that its because push notifications require device id and that would make it easy to be tracked if aubpoenaed.
ICEBlock Official (@iceblock.app)
Sorry, there will not be an Android version because there is no way to provide 100% anonymity. Each person's device ID would have to be stored and that information becomes discoverable should the government issue a subpoena. Only iOS made this possible and completely protects the users.
Bluesky Social (bsky.app)
I'm not sure if this guy is just dumb or it's a honeypot.
-
As mentioned elsewhere, they don't use device ID
-
Android is the only platform that supports alternative push methods
-
Apple knows everyone who downloads this app, which is subject to subpoena
-
The gov has been collecting push notification data from both Apple and Google for a long time. It would be as simple as knowing when notifications went out and then comparing timestamps to figure out who is using the app.
-
The app is closed-source
It would take significantly more mental energy on the part of the user but it would be far safer (which is extremely important in this specific case, as the dev agrees) to distribute through F-Droid and then use some other UnifiedPush implementation, as many Android apps already do. Anyone using this app is painting a huge target on their backs for the current authoritarian state.
-
-
Push notifications though GMS don't use the device ID; they use a generated GCM registration ID that occasionally rotates. Who knows what Google uses internally to associate GCM reg IDs to users, but to overly state that it uses device IDs is simply not correct.
I'm not suggesting push notifications are inherently secure because it's impossible to make that determination from the outside. But their assessment is incorrect and the same privacy concerns apply to Apple.
I'm pretty certain push notifications have been shown to be grossly insecure actually...
-
You don't need a user account or password to receive a push notification.
You just need to have the app installed. The app can be configured by the developer to receive push notifications.
And the developer needs a device ID for that. Which is their objection: https://www.iceblock.app/android
-
You don't, there's privacy respecting ways of delivering notifications in android.
Also, a 24/7 connection to a server isn't nearly as bad as you might think.
The connection isn't active the whole time, it only uses any significant amount of battery if there's actually data being sent or received. You likely already have quite a few of them anyway, how do you think systems normally listen for push notifications?
Besides all that, I read in other comments that the privacy issue was the device id firebase needs. Obviously apple also needs some kind of device id, otherwise how do they know where the notifications are going?
Did some searching, yup apple also needs a unique identifier:
When it’s time to send a notification, you generate a request that contains the notification data and a unique identifier for the user’s device.
From https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/setting-up-a-remote-notification-server
Apple notification identifiers are unique to an app install and regularly change though, so it’s hardly a device identifier.
-
It's 1000% possible to use android apps without involving Google in any way.
Edited for further clarification. It’s not about Google, it’s about what Android needs to receive notifications: https://www.iceblock.app/android
-
And the developer needs a device ID for that. Which is their objection: https://www.iceblock.app/android
How do you suppose APNS knows which device to deliver the notification to?
Something that... links it to the device? Like, a unique ID that Apple can identify?
It sounds like he thinks HE has to store this information, which is simply incorrect. It will obviously be stored by Google in Firebase, and by Apple wherever that gets stored, but HE does not have to store it.
I write apps for a living. I have users subscribe and unsubscribe to channels, and at no point is there a user account with password involved in either iOS or Android. If you want the memory of which channels they have subscribed to to persist across uninstall/reinstalls or different devices, then yes, but for an app like this you don't need to persist those settings.
At any point the government could subpoena who's received pushes (or at least, who's registered to) from both Google and Apple.
-
They could argue that attempting to track ICE is illegal, and all those using the app are to be arrested and tried for their crimes.
They're using the cops' favorite and extremely generic catch-all crime: "obstruction of justice".
-
-
-
-
-
-
Startups and Big Tech firms cut hiring of recent graduates by 11% and 25% respectively in 2024 vs. 2023, as AI can handle routine, low-risk tasks
Technology
1
-
Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, their read-it-later and content discovery app, and Fakespot, their browser extension that analyzes the authenticity of online product reviews.
Technology
1
-
