Last week, I wrote about how Joshua Aaron's ICEBlock app, which allows people to anonymously report ICE sightings within a 5-mile radius, is – unfortunately, and despite apparent good intentions – activism theater. This was based on Joshua's talk at HOPE where he made it clear that he isn't taking the advice
  • x1gma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    11 hours ago

    So fucking what? He is not being paid in any kind, and anything he does on that project is volunteer work. If he was not able to do anything on that project due to regular work, vacation, personal issues, or the simple fact that he didn’t want to?

    If you don’t pay for a service, you don’t get to decide what people do, deal with it

    • Bane_Killgrind@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      4·
      11 hours ago

      Well on one hand sure.

      On the other hand, detrimental reliance is a tort and if someone is relying on an app for a specific safety function, the app could be civilly liable if it fails it’s function in some way.

      Imagine if you had this attitude about an insulin use tracker/calculator, that sometimes gave wildly wrong insulin dose numbers.

      Maybe down the road, it’s decided that aiding and abetting ICE is a crime, and providing misinformation intentionally or unintentionally is a criminal act. App developer dude could be criminally liable if he knew or ought to have known he had vulnerabilities. You know, in your New Nuremberg trials that you are going to get sometime in the next decade or so.

      That’s not to say the researcher is in the clear, the timeline is too tight for his end of this to be a responsible disclosure.

      Without providing more details, I also discovered that his server is running outdated software with known vulnerabilities.

      I was intentionally vague because I knew that his server was vulnerable at the time of writing, and I didn’t want anyone to exploit one of these vulnerabilities before he had a chance to fix it.

      Also, this is not vague, profiling techniques exist, and it puts a clear target on the iceblock servers.

      • x1gma@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        9 hours ago

        On the other hand, detrimental reliance is a tort and if someone is relying on an app for a specific safety function, the app could be civilly liable if it fails it’s function in some way.

        Yes, if the app would be any kind of official tool.

        Imagine if you had this attitude about an insulin use tracker/calculator, that sometimes gave wildly wrong insulin dose numbers.

        Yes, and that’s why regulations for those kinds of things exist, that prevent those things. There is no regulation for the ice tracker.

        Maybe down the road, it’s decided that aiding and abetting ICE is a crime, and providing misinformation intentionally or unintentionally is a criminal act. App developer dude could be criminally liable if he knew or ought to have known he had vulnerabilities. You know, in your New Nuremberg trials that you are going to get sometime in the next decade or so.

        If down the road a regulation would happen for, app developer dude would be forced to either comply or to stop operations.