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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

#601

Post by nobody9999 »

yubblegum wrote: post #538
imglorp wrote: post #528

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, yes. The question is, will the corporations provide open access to the government for warrantless mass surveillance?

Well, we're talking not just about "corporations", we are talking about entities with more gross earnings than most countries' GDP, e.g. Apple is sitting on billions of dollars in cash. These guys have the tech, the data, and oceans of money. Heck, some of them even have space forces :) Maybe in our (very near?) cyber punk future, it's not only goverments that we should be concerned about. After all, we have some mea…

>Maybe in our (very near?) cyber punk future, it's not only goverments that we should be concerned about. After all, we have some measure of input regarding the goverment.

Why shouldn't we already be concerned about the corporations? They've been slurping our data and selling it for a profit for my whole life[0].

Sure, that sort of behavior started with banks and other financial institutions, but has extended, over the decades, to consumer products companies (P&G, General Mills, etc.) and to retailers (Walmart, Target, etc.), then into internet search (Google, Bing), "social" media (the Meta conglomerate, etc.), hardware and software companies (Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.), communication devices (Apple, Google, Samsung, etc.), consumer electronics (LG, Samsung, GE, Maytag), Automobiles (GM, Chrysler, Nissan, Toyota, etc., etc., etc.) and "IoT" devices (Amazon, Google and a host of others) are all hoovering up as much information as they can to both sell (and governments as well as other corporations are buying and paying through the nose) and use for "targeted" ads.

Isn't your refrigerator showing you ads, your TV recording what you're doing while you use it, your phone reporting pretty much everywhere you go, everything you do and everyone with whom you communicate, social media apps recording every key stroke, even if it doesn't end up in a post, your car tracking both your movements and your driving behavior, your internet searches used to create detailed shadow profiles of your interests and purchasing habits. I could go on and on and on. Corporations are collecting levels of private data on people that would have been beyond the Stasi's[1] wildest dreams.

And so I'll ask again, when, exactly, should we "start" to be concerned about corporate surveillance?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Credit_Reporting_Act#Hist...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

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

#602

Post by specialist »

Need to get crafty.

Make ICE spotting a plausibly deniable covert subtext via an otherwise popular medium.

Like (probably apocryphal) Jesus fish.

Both Pokemon and Polytopia have ice themed combatants, right?

Whenever you see some masked thugs staging for another round of terror, start a match as one of those tribes, trainers, or whatever. Build a certain kind of (creature) deck recognizable by anyone "in the know". Use some kind of slang. Like WWII's code talkers.

I don't actually know how Pokemon and the multiplayer Polytopia work. But y'all get the idea.

I keep thinking of the "slug bug" game bored kids play in the back seat. See a VW Beetle, yell "slug bug" first, and then punch your sibling. I think "Eye Spy" is the nice version.

Do mobile games like that exist? Surely someone's done it. A Foursquare for kids. Or something.

Again, y'all get the idea.

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

#604

Post by yubblegum »

nobody9999 wrote: post #601
yubblegum wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we're talking not just about "corporations", we are talking about entities with more gross earnings than most countries' GDP, e.g. Apple is sitting on billions of dollars in cash. These guys have the tech, the data, and oceans of money. Heck, some of them even have space forces :) Maybe in our (very near?) cyber punk future, it's not only goverments that we should be concerned about. After all, we have some mea…

>Maybe in our (very near?) cyber punk future, it's not only goverments that we should be concerned about. After all, we have some measure of input regarding the goverment. Why shouldn't we already be concerned about the corporations? They've been slurping our data and selling it for a profit for my whole life[0]. Sure, that sort of behavior started with banks and other financial institutions, but has extended, over t…

Oh, we most certainly should be, but I am just musing about the (not entirely improbable future and possibly inevitable) when corporations are more powerful and lethal than any government.

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

#605

Post by trimethylpurine »

idiotsecant wrote: post #600
snvzz wrote: post #561

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was an illegal app designed to aid in illegal interference with law enforcement. It is unsurprising for it to get removed, as companies must follow the law.

A) it's not illegal, as evidenced by the fact that not a single person has been prosecuted. There is no law being broken, just the feel-feels of the surveillance state getting hurt. B) Even if there was a law, its the duty of every American to disobey unjust laws. The government serves at the pleasure of the people, not the other way around. There are a lot of people getting awfully comfortable with weak men ordering…

>"it's the duty of every American to disobey unjust laws..."

Is this what universities are teaching? Where did you get this from, honestly?

This is a terrible assertion. The subjectivity of what is just or unjust would lead to overwhelming violent lawlessness if this were true. Thankfully, we have no such duty.

Please, stand up for what you believe is right within the legal framework. This is a largely just society, by comparison.

Maybe travel a bit to see what an unjust society looks like. Weigh your options, at least, before resorting to criminality as a lifestyle choice.

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

#606

Post by latexr »

carbonbioxide wrote: post #558
latexr wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they don't even know what a browser is on their phone. Why should they? There’s no app called “web browser” on the phone. But there may be “Safari” or “Google Chrome”. Do they know what those are? If you told them “go to ”, could they do it?

yeah? and what are they gonna do when they get to safari, type the website, and accept geo location?. You don't know humans. you lost me at "if you told them", who's gonna tell them?

Your outrage and accusations are nonsensical, you didn’t understand my post at all. I was asking about that person specifically.

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

#607

Post by LexiMax »

trimethylpurine wrote: post #605
idiotsecant wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A) it's not illegal, as evidenced by the fact that not a single person has been prosecuted. There is no law being broken, just the feel-feels of the surveillance state getting hurt. B) Even if there was a law, its the duty of every American to disobey unjust laws. The government serves at the pleasure of the people, not the other way around. There are a lot of people getting awfully comfortable with weak men ordering…

>"it's the duty of every American to disobey unjust laws..." Is this what universities are teaching? Where did you get this from, honestly? This is a terrible assertion. The subjectivity of what is just or unjust would lead to overwhelming violent lawlessness if this were true. Thankfully, we have no such duty. Please, stand up for what you believe is right within the legal framework. This is a largely just society,…

Being law abiding in a society run by lawless and violent thugs isn't contributing to a social fabric. It is a survival mechanism at best.

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

#609

Post by kashunstva »

toukale wrote: post #111

Why are we asking for profits companies to fight our fights? I am reading lots of comments from keyboard warriors. For profits companies are not there to fight citizens fights. You don't want this kind of stuff to happen, then people need to fight their governments and demand better and stop relying on for profits entities to do so.

> Why are we asking for profits companies to fight our fights?

Maybe we're not asking them to fight our fights, but to stop tipping the scales one way or the other. There's a difference between asking them to aid progressive or regressive causes vs. actually staying neutral. If it's too big a moral burden on Apple or Google, then allow us to run whatever we want on our devices.

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

#610

Post by Dig1t »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #3

Methinks this won’t be the last politically-motivated removal from Apple’s App Store; the more apps they remove then the more they weaken their own arguments about how a locked-in walled garden is in consumer interests.

The left did this in the previous admin with Parler. This has been going on for a long time and Apple will not face any repercussions because it is abused by both sides of the political aisle.
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