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Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

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Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#291

Reading the comments on that Fox site is depressing. A lot of hate for Apple, but for the wrong reasons (as in, completely missing the danger of centralized app stores..).

I think this website overestimates the halo effect Apple garners with the commonfolk.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#292
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what if you want a push notification when ICE agents appear in your work area?

Maybe an SMS based approach would be preferred over an app notification.

Expensive for the host though

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#293
post #6

Not surprising. The media hyped up the app and the admin hyper focused on it. Was bound to happen eventually since Apple wants to play nice with the government. Nice thing is it isn't the only one and others are multiplatform instead of iOS only. I'm doubtful we'll be seeing ICEblock show up in the iOS side load community.

I'd love for all tech reviewers at future product launches to go: "Yeah cool new iPads thanks... why did you guys block and remove an app that wasn't illegal? One that helped people know if armed forces that could search them and tear apart their homes were in the area?". Just refuse to report on or post about new product launches without mentioning it. Press is an large thing for Apple. Multiple times now they've on…

Yeah but the press has to make money. They don't want to lose access, ultimately most of them want to be PR contractors for big companies

Getting people off of for-profit news would be great, though I admit it's a blue sky proposal

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#294
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's nothing stopping ICE from raiding where you live and destroying your shit. This isn't specific to ICE, and sovereign immunity especially around law enforcement is a topic that has been contested for a while. Every now and then there's a story that pops up of some innocent's house being destroyed due to a clerical error leading the local SWAT team to look for drugs at the wrong address.

> This isn't specific to ICE It absolutely is specific to ICE when they get to do it to 125 apartment units at once by taking everybody in an entire building, regardless of immigration status, and detaining them for hours, then leaving them with smashed doors and broken possessions. But, oh, it's "been contested for a while", so let's definitely downplay it.

The power to detain a bunch of people for hours when it's not clear if any of them have committed a crime is a power the cops already have, and use from time to time. And ordinary city cops, not just ICE specifically.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#295

I'm not a lawyer and I have no insider information, but I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is concerned that if anything happened to an ICE agent, they could be criminally and civilly liable if it could be shown that the attacker became aware of the location of the agent through use of the app.

Absolutely not the case, imagine the implications if so

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#296

I don't want to fall into the fallacy of implying that this is somehow justified because of something "the left" did a few years ago but I would like to highlight the hypocrisy of how many people were totally okay with this sort of executive censorship when Biden was in charge. > "We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store — and Apple did so," Bondi said in a statement t…

I have never voluntarily owned an Apple smartphone or tablet, and a huge reason why is because I care a lot about being able to run software on it that Apple doesn't approve of for whatever reason.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#297
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure who you’re expecting to convert. Most people- thinking of people like my parents- think any app that hinders police must be a bad thing. The idea that something like ICEBlock is benevolent and doesn’t make the user a criminal by association just doesn’t register.

Surely an app designed to help circumvent the law is a bad thing, even if it doesn't make one legally a criminal merely by association?

Depends on your opinion of the law that people are circumventing.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPNs can serve a legitimate purpose, like shielding your traffic while using a public network. Seems to me the better technology analogue to ICEBlock is The Pirate Bay; maybe there's some flimsy pretext of it being used for a legitimate purpose, and maybe it's not outright illegal, but everyone knows that it's almost always used for an illegal purpose.

ICE is abducting citizens and generally stirring up chaos to make pretexts for escalating federal occupations. Anyone would be an utter fool to voluntarily put themselves in the presence of the new "American" Gestapo. And since the number of citizens is much larger than the number of iLlEgAlS (regardless of what the fearmongering on boomers' TVs would have you believe), an app to help avoid the lawless thugs is in th…

I haven't heard about ICE detaining any US citizens who weren't either actively interfering with ICE activity as part of a deliberate anti-immigration-law-enforcement protest, or closely associating with actual illegal immigrants.

Detaining people who are actively interfering with ICE activity as part of a deliberate protest is something I think it's reasonable for any kind of police to be able to do - there's no reason why fellow citizens in a democracy should inherently privilege the violence protesters do in order to prevent the enforcement of a law over the violence that the police do to in order to carry out that enforcement, it all comes down to your political opinion of the law.

Detaining US citizens while in the process of detaining illegal immigrants also seems reasonable, since there's no way to tell if a suspected illegal immigrant claiming to be a US citizen is lying or not until law enforcement actually checks. This is no different than cops being able to arrest a person on suspicion of a crime and then let them go with no charges when they realize they were mistake, which is a power cops already have in our society.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#299

[flagged]

If I had to guess who was most likely to be illiterate between: - employees of major American tech companies like Apple - ICE agents - illegal immigrants

I would bet on illegal immigrants every time, especially if we're restricting the question to literacy in English specifically.

Re: Apple takes down ICE tracking apps after pressure from DOJ

#300
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy apple products, work for the company or own its stock then you are financially facilitating this. I don't know who you are and I don't care, I am just saying this is the basic cause and effect. Things cannot improve unless stakeholders use their levers to change or abandon the company.

Do you have a 401k that somehow doesn’t hold Apple stock? Or are you complicit too?

I don't contribute to my 401k or I liquidate whatever is in it as soon as feasible within the tax model.

I think I have some index funds but I am going to try to put them into the DOW or gold or something.

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