Maybe they want that, but the statement on their website is not wrong on a technicality because it's oversimplified; it's wrong because it asserts a privacy difference between the two operating systems that does not exist.

Lol, called it.

Incompetence and false bravado is all but guaranteed with development teams. Especially when it's closed source, not audited, and has minimal room for feedback loops.

• Is it open source? (No)
• Is it's publishing and build pipeline open? (No)
• Can anyone audit it? (No)
• Does the author make unreliable claims of privacy? (Yes)
• Does the author detail how data privacy and security is implemented? (No)

It's probably not a honeypot. But it's also likely to be negligent enough in implementation that it might as well be.

When the feds come for you for using it

Why too narrow of a use case?

Imagine federation with text linked to other text, that'd be crazy, right?

Wait, it's actually more complicated than that

But FR using existing federated protocols to build something like this is EXACTLY what the protocols are for. You don't need to implement the federation yourself, you can use an existing network

Glad others have pointed this out. Their "reasons" for not supporting 70% of worldwide smartphones via Android seemed very suspect.

Incompetence is not a "privacy implication". You think Apple servers are beyond reach of US warrants?

Then don't claim the reasoning is anonymity.

It's not on the same level. Android at least provides the option of using an alternative notification system, and also supports downloading apps from anywhere. Including places that don't require an account.

It's so blatant as if theyre using an instruction manual or something

not defending the dev here, but iOS is the majority in the US, why would worldwide market share be relevant for a US app?

Is it only available in the US App Store? I can imagine that some people who could make good use of it don’t have a US Apple ID.

Because visitors to the US don't tend to be from the US, that's only logical

I think he thinks HE had to store the information, and if he isn't the one storing it, it's anonymous.

Except, on Android, you can also do it where only google stores the information and he doesn't have to store any. And there are no user name or passwords or accounts involved to listen to specific channels like he claims.

You can collect this information, and you'd be able to write a more custom push service, but it isn't needed at all, but Google and Apple will always know who is getting the messages.

You don't even need to audit a closed source app to know that Apple knows which devices its sending pushes to. It works because they know.

It's actually not possible to build a push service like FCM or APNS on Android and have it function at the same level as FCM. FCM has special permissions to bypass certain device states on the device to ensure message delivery that nothing else can match.

The best you can do is approximate it with an always active websocket and a foreground service always running with battery optimizations disabled, but good luck not having that foreground service shut down on occasion as well. Devices are hostile to them for battery saving purposes. You'd have the best luck with a Pixel device though for something like that. You could also do some sort of scheduled background polling, but the device can be hostile to that as well, and it would eat more battery.

I don't think everybody who makes a bad claim is a troll. A lot of people just are that stupid.

international VPNs are not immune from US subpoena

And condoms are only 98% effective.

A condom and VPN work on the same principle: a layer of protection. No protection is ever 100% effective, but you can at least try.

Remember, they’re already building the camps. It’s only a matter of time before “helping illegals” is a crime that gets you sent to the camps. I’d rather make the fascists work for it at least.

Think about that for a second. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by definition involves at least one border and 2 countries. Even if they only went after American citizens (which they're trying to do), they'd be deporting you somewhere else.

As it is, I suspect a significant number of at-risk people in the US and their advocates use Android.

Someone knowledgeable enough would be able to figure out where every upload is going, I'd wager. But that would take Someone that is knowledgeable enough, as well as willing to expose an app like that given the potential consequences.