Sounds like I need to download this app..
If you start tuning, then make sure you turn it off before bringing your car to the dealership. It'll void any warranty.
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U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
51–60 of 381 posts
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#52That's why you should be downloading from F-Droid anonymously.
99% sure Google would still know the app was run associated with other identifiers, but probably won't be turned over with the list of users downloading from the Play Store.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
The DOJ first sued EZ Lynk in 2021, accusing the Cayman Islands-based company of violating the Clean Air Act by marketing and selling “defeat devices.” These tools allegedly allow users to bypass factory emissions controls on diesel vehicles, primarily through the EZ Lynk Auto Agent app paired with an onboard diagnostic (OBD) hardware dongle. Opponents say “Investigating this claim does not require identifying each p…
> (how will they know who to interview if they can't get the data? duh!) What I don't understand is how they know someone has to be interviewed, but they don't already know who, which makes me question how the investigation got started in the first place? > How else would the DOJ obtain evidence if they don't know who is buying the product? The question is, how did the investigation got started, unless they already c…
The case is against EZLynk, not the folks using the product.
> The question is, how did the investigation got started, unless they already can see that people are misusing the product? And since they obviously must be able to see that people are misusing it, why don't they instead obtain evidence about those specific users, that they must have observed already?
Well you'd have to get into the legal case for the specifics, but I don't think this is an accurate assumption to make. They can just see the product "on the shelf", test it for themselves, realize it can be used to violate the Clean Air Act, and then request the ability to talk to the consumers of the product to see how they use the product or if they've used it to violate the Clean Air Act. You don't have to engage with a specific person at all.
How else do you get what might be illegal products off the shelves? Perhaps the users primarily use it for other purposes and the interviews bear that out? That would inform the DOJ and the court on the merits of the case.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#54Missing key points:
Why is this administration, which is all for coal, oil, and against environmental policies pursuing THIS?
This DOJ is all about pursuing cases for retribution. It could be, they already know someone they want to punish, and already found they're using the device. Or, use it as a source for finding people they want to punish.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#55> The government says it needs this information to identify and interview witnesses who can testify about how the tools were actually used. Why start this whole thing, if you don't already have this information and have people willing to help you as witnesses? Sounds to me they're saying they don't have this already, but why is this investigation happening in the first place then? Rather than finding every user of th…
Yeah, I'd HAPPILY report every single truck rolling coal around me if there was a place to report that information. Hell, I've seen a truck roll coal around cop cars and, obviously, nothing happened. This is just gross privacy intrusion masquerading as "protecting the environment". We don't need 100% compliance to the law and simple prosecution/ticketing of obvious violations would go a long way towards solving the p…
I was on a bike ride with my young kid. We were going up a hill and being passed by a lifted diesel truck. I could tell that the driver was desperately working the throttle to avoid accidentally blowing smoke in my kids' face.
Congratulations, buddy. You've designed your life around being such a massive unlikeable asshole to random strangers. But for a brief moment you understood shame.
I'm generally pretty libertarian, but I'm all for throwing the book at these guys.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
The DOJ first sued EZ Lynk in 2021, accusing the Cayman Islands-based company of violating the Clean Air Act by marketing and selling “defeat devices.” These tools allegedly allow users to bypass factory emissions controls on diesel vehicles, primarily through the EZ Lynk Auto Agent app paired with an onboard diagnostic (OBD) hardware dongle. Opponents say “Investigating this claim does not require identifying each p…
> (how will they know who to interview if they can't get the data? duh!) What I don't understand is how they know someone has to be interviewed, but they don't already know who, which makes me question how the investigation got started in the first place? > How else would the DOJ obtain evidence if they don't know who is buying the product? The question is, how did the investigation got started, unless they already c…
Lawful evidence gathering doesn’t require you to know the answer to every question you want to ask someone up front. Nothing would ever get solved if investigators couldn’t act on the perfectly logical conclusion that the suspect must have talked to SOMEONE to get this part of the crime done, and this SOMEONE ELSE knows who that was.
The balance is in tailoring the access that the investigators have to the SOMEONE ELSE. They have to convincingly demonstrate the connection between the questions they want to ask the third party and their ability to legally use that evidence to further their case.
It’s like saying the cops can’t subpoena the taxi dispatcher because the suspect only ever talked with the driver.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#57That's why you should be downloading from F-Droid anonymously.
Any device with Google services installed has all apps scanned at least once per day.
>Real-time protections for non-Play installs Google Play Protect offers protection for apps that are installed from sources outside of Google Play. When a user tries to install an app, Play Protect conducts a real-time check of the app against known harmful or malicious samples that Google Play Protect has cataloged.
https://developers.google.com/android/play-protect/client-pr...
They will also go further for apks with novel signatures - take a copy, upload it to google to decompile and scan, and then if you have their express permission, allow you to install it.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#58Missing key points: Why is this administration, which is all for coal, oil, and against environmental policies pursuing THIS? This DOJ is all about pursuing cases for retribution. It could be, they already know someone they want to punish, and already found they're using the device. Or, use it as a source for finding people they want to punish.
US Attorneys aren't forced to toe the party line on every issue.
This issue is just not directly politically important enough to get the "don't touch" treatment.
Donors and party power brokers aren't rolling coal.
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#59Hopefully they hand it over, and all of these people lose their licenses. I'm sick of breathing in their exhaust on the way to work. I think people should have the freedom to do what they want; if you want to have a truck that has horrible exhaust, fine, but we'll have it piped back into your cab for you to breathe instead of the people behind you, and if you want a car that sounds like a thousand go-carts racing dow…
> I think people should have the freedom to do what they want; if you want to have a truck that has horrible exhaust, fine, but we'll have it piped back into your cab for you to breathe instead of the people behind you, and if you want a car that sounds like a thousand go-carts racing down the street fine, but it'll be through headphones destroying your hearing every time you hit the gas.
Hey congrats, you discovered Society! This is what all those rules and shit are all about - your impact on other people, and their impact on you! It turns out that just saying “people should be able to do what they want” doesn’t actually solve anything, because other people also exist, and some of them are you!
Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app
#60> The government says it needs this information to identify and interview witnesses who can testify about how the tools were actually used. Why start this whole thing, if you don't already have this information and have people willing to help you as witnesses? Sounds to me they're saying they don't have this already, but why is this investigation happening in the first place then? Rather than finding every user of th…
Why stop there? Why not request the PII of every person who could have plausibly downloaded the app at any point in time?