this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2025
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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 26 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Twenty years ago tracking armed thugs in ski masks would have been called a public service.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 68 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Was curious so Iooked up the app's site.

Apparently the devs claim they can't release it on Android because "There's no way to be anonymous on the play store", but it's even more impossible to be anonymous on the platform they've released. That's how you know the developer is incredibly stupid and/or shady as hell- because they've never even heard of Fdroid?

Makes me think the app is a troll/trojan horse (not as in infection, trojan horse as in it has alterior motives)

The Drumpf crew "losing it" over the app just makes it more questionable. They love to create a firestorm so people talk about the thing "they definitely don't want you to use!!" to get people to do things...

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 26 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

they mentioned that its because push notifications require device id and that would make it easy to be tracked if aubpoenaed.

https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3lmzykc7rb42d

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 27 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I'm not sure if this guy is just dumb or it's a honeypot.

  1. As mentioned elsewhere, they don't use device ID

  2. Android is the only platform that supports alternative push methods

  3. Apple knows everyone who downloads this app, which is subject to subpoena

  4. The gov has been collecting push notification data from both Apple and Google for a long time. It would be as simple as knowing when notifications went out and then comparing timestamps to figure out who is using the app.

  5. The app is closed-source

It would take significantly more mental energy on the part of the user but it would be far safer (which is extremely important in this specific case, as the dev agrees) to distribute through F-Droid and then use some other UnifiedPush implementation, as many Android apps already do. Anyone using this app is painting a huge target on their backs for the current authoritarian state.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 15 points 10 hours ago

Interesting, especially with GrapheneOS people shooting it down immediately to call them out on their baloney.

[–] poopkins@lemmy.world 8 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Push notifications though GMS don't use the device ID; they use a generated GCM registration ID that occasionally rotates. Who knows what Google uses internally to associate GCM reg IDs to users, but to overly state that it uses device IDs is simply not correct.

I'm not suggesting push notifications are inherently secure because it's impossible to make that determination from the outside. But their assessment is incorrect and the same privacy concerns apply to Apple.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 9 hours ago

I'm pretty certain push notifications have been shown to be grossly insecure actually...

[–] LadyButterfly@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

This is a really good comment

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[–] Geodad@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

There's no way to be anonymous on the play store

Aurora store.

[–] Reygle@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

I was quoting them but you're right-or Fdroid ofc

[–] Entertain529@lemmy.ml 29 points 11 hours ago

This gives honeypot vibes. IOS only with no way to access via browser?

[–] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 14 hours ago

It's going to be filled with false warnings from MAGA idiots and trolls...

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 44 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I love how the Streisand Effect works. They just made this app the hottest thing out there.

[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 80 points 17 hours ago (9 children)

It's closed source, and the build and publishing pipeline isn't transparent.

For me that makes this no different than a potential ICE honey pot

[–] queueBenSis@sh.itjust.works 25 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

can’t even find “Joshua Aaron” on linked in or github. feels a little sus. my moneys on honey pot

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago

Has to be shit is glowing

[–] Bloomcole@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Haven't followed it much (EU), can you elaborate who did what and what can be done potentially?

[–] spicehoarder@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Haven't followed it much

Oh lord, where do I even start? It's an entire shit show. And not the usual political shit show. A really scary one that's truly heartbreaking. I don't even really feel safe talking about it

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