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U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

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Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#91

Post by redsocksfan45 »

legitster wrote: post #55
cogman10 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 libertari…

Guy tries to drive courtously around you and this is how you take it? You're unhinged.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#92

Post by xp84 »

nathanmills wrote: post #35
logicchains wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why F-Droid eventually won't work on new Android phones.

No, it will continue to work just fine. The restrictions are being added to Google Play Services, not Android itself. I and many others do not run closed source software like Google Play Services on our devices.

And how long do you think that window will remain open? I expect anyone not running a closed system (hardware attestation) is going to not only be locked out of things like banking apps, government apps, etc., but also if Google has its way, you’ll be prevented from accessing those things on the web as well, maybe even from your desktop. We just saw that story a few days ago with them replacing CAPTCHA tech with “prove you have an unmodified locked-down Google or Apple phone.”

Clearly there is a single driving agenda, which Google and the government are largely in harmony on, to try to approach 100% real-identity-tying to every activity done online.

Where once, “online” meant generally greater anonymity than “IRL” activities, since most things could be signed up for with an arbitrary throwaway email address and no proof of identity. It is now or shortly will be the opposite.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#93

Post by midtake »

This "car-tinkering app" is used as a glorified GameShark for deleting factory emissions controls, I don't feel sorry for anyone who uses this to roll coal or whatever. Instead of investigating everyone on the list of users of this app, should the government instead ban diesel engines knowing their emissions controls software will be defeated? Should environmental regulations be relaxed? What is really the solution here?

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#94

Post by ashirviskas »

Denatonium wrote: post #90
VLM wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're going to have two phones, the big brother phone you usually leave at home for banking apps and tax filing and boring stuff like that, locked down and nanny up, and the "real phone" from aliexpress or whatever that is purchased rooted and you actually live your real life upon. I would not be surprised to see double sided phone cases so we can carry our big brother phone with our real phone. There is some prior a…

Some of us are already doing this. My main phone is a Google Pixel 8 running LineageOS 23.2 with F-Droid, microG, and Aurora Store installed. For things requiring Play Integrity, I picked up a $20 burner carrier-locked Motorola phone at Walmart for $30. It's WiFi-only, given that I'm never going to pay for service on it, but I can also tether it to my main phone. It's also useful for writing one-star reviews on apps…

>For things requiring Play Integrity, I picked up a $20 burner carrier-locked Motorola phone at Walmart for $30.`

So it's a $30 burner phone, not $20?

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#95

Post by legitster »

chasd00 wrote: post #80
legitster wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds to me they're saying they don't have this already, but why is this investigation happening in the first place then? They probably have tons of data and testimony from witnesses who use the product illegally. You can find hundreds of threads online of people telling you how to defeat emissions controls using their products. The case prosecutors want to make is that EZ Lynk knowingly enables this behavior. If…

> EZ Lynk knowingly enables this behavior. idk, knife makers are knowingly enabling knife attacks. If there's at least one EZLynk customer who isn't breaking a law then it seems to me the company is in the clear. I would use a gun analogy but, in the US, guns have constitutional protection.

I think the difference is that a knife is more or less used for what the manufacturer advertises it for.

Something similar has happened with gun manufacturers regularly. It's relatively easy to make a semi-automatic user-convertible into an automatic weapon. But selling your rifle with instructions like "we absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND cutting this specific notch off of the trigger group with a hacksaw BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE ILLEGAL" has not been appreciated by the ATF or our court system.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#96

Post by bigyabai »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #30
goolz wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The saddest part is, most people simply do not care, my parents constantly echo the sentiment that if I have nothing to hide, I have nothing to fear. I would argue this slippery slope came about 20+ years ago during the initial Patriot Act. They normalize the behavior, take a few more freedoms, and keep on trucking. I used to be proud to be American. Now I am just worried.

I understand why they don't care and I don't fault them. The truth is that this doesn't affect most people in their daily lives. It sounds entitled to say that this demands their attention.

It affects everyone, the question is whether or not they're held to account. Some people think of themselves as low-risk until they're detained at the border for a Facebook post they made.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#97

Post by corywadd »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #79
legitster wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds to me they're saying they don't have this already, but why is this investigation happening in the first place then? They probably have tons of data and testimony from witnesses who use the product illegally. You can find hundreds of threads online of people telling you how to defeat emissions controls using their products. The case prosecutors want to make is that EZ Lynk knowingly enables this behavior. If…

> If they can show that the majority of users are committing crimes with the app, that's a much stronger case than just rounding up a handful of witnesses. I still don't understand why this should even be relevant in cases like this. The thing is basically a generic OBD dongle, right? The same thing every DIY and shade tree mechanic uses to read codes and run service procedures. Suppose 20,000 people buy it and use i…

> The same thing every DIY and shade tree mechanic uses to read codes and run service procedures.

Now you have me wondering if this is their real target, to go after people who are defeating CRM on their vehicles so they can repair them themselves or in their small mom-and-pop garage of choice. But right to repair is popular, so they have to claim it's for something else.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#98

Post by Terr_ »

roughly wrote: post #59
analogpixel wrote: post #8

Hopefully 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…

An I missing some context here? That seems unnecessarily hostile for something that seems like just agreement with the parent poster.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#99

Post by xp84 »

jayers wrote: post #63
Yaa101 wrote: post #12

Welcome to our brave new digital world, governments and DOJs do this because now they can, I am afraid this is only the beginning.

How is this, in principle, any different from the DOJ using a subpoena to get customer records from an adult store that was allegedly selling illegal explicit material? Just because you use the internet to commit the crime doesn't make it not a crime.

I’d say a big difference is that in your example the thing that was supposedly sold was entirely illegal to possess for any reason.

The case being discussed is one where someone might be able to use the product to break the law.

So it’s more like demanding that Home Depot, Walmart, Amazon give the names of every American who’s ever bought a crowbar because the DOJ has heard that some people are breaking into buildings with crowbars.

It has been alleged that the government doesn’t want to prosecute these people who are the ones committing the crimes, they “just want to talk” in order to prosecute the company. Not sure I’d trust that without a signed immunity agreement. If I were forced to speak to these goons, I certainly wouldn’t say a word unless they gave me one of those - regardless of what I was using the gadget for.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#100

Post by hughdbrown »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #25
cogman10 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For those, like me, who aren't familiar with the term "rolling coal": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_coal

I had a driver in a Ford F-150 do this in front of me last week as he pulled away from a light. The smoke totally blacked out the windshield for 5 seconds while I was in motion. I was totally blinded by this.

I had no idea this was a thing, much less that it was something people did on purpose.

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