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ICE-tracking app developers aren’t giving up
- leakycap 11mo agoTim Cook has lost all credibility after his kowtowing to the trump administration. Apple needs a new leader, and not the guy who sheepishly launched the $999 monitor stand. It's hard to escape using Apple devices, but the company's actions under trump have made me into a consumer open to other options. If the Apple phone and the Chinese-brand are both going to bow to their respective authoritarian government, it makes the cheaper, better spec'd non-Apple options much more appealing.
- bigyabai 11mo agoI don't know where people got the impression that Apple seriously resisted government coercion. Their company is right there in the PRISM leaks, and Senator Wyden called them out (alongside Google) on backdooring Push Notifications years ago. Didn't people want Apple's thoughtful, executive curation? If you're still not switching phones, what gives? Apple won this fight years ago, I'm shocked that we only now see people lift pitchforks and complain. You fought for your ability to resist sideloading and this is your just deserts. It's the phone you wanted.
- leakycap 11mo ago> I don't know where people got the impression that Apple seriously resisted government coercion I think it was either the way they added the two-button passcode lock that can be done without pulling the phone out of your pocket, the San Bernardino Shooter's iPhone (2016), Apple's resistance to the UK's backdoor requirement in ADP, or maybe when they wouldn't unlock the Pensacola Shooter's iPhone (2019), Apple's methods to resisting China's demand for iCloud Master Key multiple times, or the constant updates like disabling biometric unlock after being disconnected from cell networks for a certain number of hours. > Senator Wyden called them out (alongside Google) on backdooring Push Notifications years ago. Apple's notification framework is wildly different than Google's Android method. Apple's notifications can be anonymous (hence the article we're commending on!) but Google's cannot. > Didn't people want Apple's thoughtful, executive curation? The app store doesn't promise curation in the sense of a museum store... it's more running the apps through a pre-check before offering to customers. It's safety, not sales appeal, at least mostly. > If you're still not switching phones, what gives? The alternatives are many times worse. Have you ever actually looked at what iOS collects vs Android?! > I'm shocked that we only now see people lift pitchforks and complain. We're upset about ICE apps being removed and Apple giving gold chunks to wannabe dictators. That didn't happen until recently. > You fought for your ability to resist sideloading and this is your just deserts. Google is also fighting sideloading. What phone maker are you imagining exists today and makes phones that don't have this issue?
- somenameforme 11mo agoYou're conflating public vs private. PRISM is private data collection and probably unconstitutional/illegal owing to the 4th amendment. So any information provided by PRISM is not directly used. Instead there is parallel construction [1] - the NSA (or whatever other agency they provide intel to) creates a pretext for how they obtained the information/evidence that sidesteps the real source. For instance if they pick up information on a car carrying drugs, that car might be pulled over for 'driving recklessly' and it's then searched because of 'suspicious behavior.' The real source of the reason makes no appearance in court. The reason for this charade is because everytime somebody tries to sue the NSA over illegal data collection, the case gets tossed for lack of standing. You need to prove both that you were illegally spied on and negatively affected by such. If you can't prove that, then you have no standing to sue. And anytime people try to gather evidence of said collection in e.g. discovery, the government simply claims national security - and the case ends up tossed. The public cases are efforts to try to streamline the process where the government could legally directly utilize such things. So you have this sort of charade where Apple is giving the government everything it wants in private, but then genuinely fighting them publicly. Both sides get more or less what they want out of the deal. Apple gets to pretend to be a protector of privacy, and the government gets unfettered access to whatever they want. The Intercept has run a bunch of articles on this topic, alongside direct evidence of such. Here's one. [2] [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction [2] - https://theintercept.com/2017/11/30/nsa-surveillance-fisa-section-702/ https://theintercept.com/2017/11/30/nsa-surveillance-fisa-se...
- leakycap 11mo agoThere is no evidence of Parallel construction in iOS. NSA/other baddies wants to surveil, Apple is fighting this more than any other large company I know of. Today's announcement from Apple further flies in the face of your arguments: https://security.apple.com/blog/apple-security-bounty-evolved/ https://security.apple.com/blog/apple-security-bounty-evolve...
- bigyabai 11mo ago
- raw_anon_1111 11mo agoSwitch phones to what? A company whose entire business model is tracking and selling ads that also took the app offline?
- bigyabai 11mo agoOh good, the "grass is never greener" arguement! You don't have to use a smartphone. You can buy a flip phone, a $20 Android handset or even a Linux burner that handles SMS, takes photos and keeps your voicemail. Or you could use no phone at all.
- raw_anon_1111 11mo agoRight - and lose directions, the ability to use messaging apps I use for work, and “using no phone” so I can’t contact anyone?
- bigyabai 11mo agoMobile data and maps will stay, if you trust a WWAN modem enough. Your messaging apps for work should be on a work device, not your personal phone. And yes, using "no phone" is a perfectly amicable solution to the problem. I know, it sounds wild. You can still make it 24 hours without touching Instagram in 2025, I've checked myself.
- raw_anon_1111 11mo agoYou said “no phone” as in no method for anyone to contact me.
- cranberryturkey 11mo agoPWA baby!
- tfwnopmt 11mo agoWhy not make a PWA? What does a full app offer that a PWA can't?
- JumpCrisscross 11mo agoJust make it a website. The PWA brand doesn’t really work anymore, outside developer circles.
- gdulli 11mo agoAccess to a passive user base that only knows of the App Store and software they've been given permission to run.
- pbh101 11mo agohttps://daringfireball.net/2025/07/iceblock https://daringfireball.net/2025/07/iceblock
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 11mo ago> To maintain anonymity and store zero user data, there is and can be no web app version of ICEBlock. There is and can be no Android version. Only iOS supports the security and privacy features for ICEBlock to offer what it does, the way it does. I don't know if that's true but that's their claim
- k310 11mo agoDo not obey in advance Historian Timothy Snyder’s first lesson in his book On Tyranny is “Do not obey in advance.” To obey a tyrant before you are compelled to do so teaches them what they will be able to get you to do, easily, without even needing to expend the resources and energy it takes to carry out that part of their agenda.
- decremental 11mo ago[dead]
- spacedcowboy 11mo agoWhy does anything remotely critical of Trumps fascist regime get [flagged] on Hacker News ?
- resters 11mo agoProbably fear of retribution or Garry being politically conservative himself. Garry has repeatedly called for more authoritarian policing in the SF area.
- k310 11mo agoTrolls. I hadn't even noticed until I read your post.
- inemesitaffia 11mo agoBecause Bush was a fascist and McCain and Romney were going to be too.
- mieses 11mo agoWhat is the big deal about apps? Is the app store their cathedral? Why can't they use shady web sites like the rest of us common infidels?