#iceblock

Some items are from earlier in December.

Church members flee as federal agents arrive at east Charlotte place of worship

Heads up, this might save someone's life:

ICEBlock is an innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone.

In recent years, ICE has faced criticism for alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations.

tl;dr: the ICEBlock app appears to be safe to use, does not share personal data, and cannot (now) be used by the government to track anyone. The reports that get filed even self-destruct after awhile to prevent future search warrants from scooping them up.

So if you want to use the thing, go ahead. It seems safe. That's good news! ICEBlock has been getting a lot of press lately.

HOWEVER

I am not a fan of these kinds of crowd-sourced reporting tools. Even if the creator has the best of intentions, knows what they are doing, and creates a safe app... that doesn't mean it'll stay safe.

Also, using your phone AT ALL during a protest or at an ICE intervention is risky as fuck, since law enforcement can collect your device ID/IP passively. Just by being near it. That's the way cell phones work. Every wifi hotspot & cell tower records your passage, even if you don't connect.

Apple phones can even be tracked while powered down -- that's how the Find My Device feature works. As long as the battery has 0.01% charge, it's still gonna fire off location signals occasionally even when "off". Android phones don't (typically) do that unless you have an app installed specifically to locate your device.

The only ways to avoid this are (1) leave your phone at home and use a cheap burner phone instead, or (2) acquire a small faraday pouch which blocks radio signals.

Also, friendly reminder that modern cars have the equivalent of a cell phone built in and can be tracked the same way. If your car offers over-the-air software updates or has OnStar or offers navigation without a phone, it's got that capability. So maybe leave your car at home too unless it's old as hell. (For reference I drive a 2016 Dodge with the old 3G transmitter and that can still be tracked by law enforcement. It needs to be older.)

Edward Helmore at The Guardian:

Donald Trump and administration officials have threatened CNN over what they said was its promotion of a new app that allows users to track and try to avoid Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. Speaking to reporters in Florida on a trip to visit a new Ice detention center in Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, said her department and the Department of Justice were looking at prosecuting CNN over its reporting on the app, called IceBlock. “We’re working with Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them,” Noem said, “because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities and operations. We’re going to actually go after them and prosecute them. What they’re doing is illegal.” Trump joined in, saying the news network – a frequent target of his ire – should also be prosecuted for what he said were “false reports on the attack on Iran”, referring to the leak of a Pentagon assessment that suggested US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and had probably only set the program back by months. “They were totally obliterated,” Trump countered. “Our people have to be celebrated, [and] not come home to, ‘What do you mean we didn’t hit the targets?’”

CNN defended its reporting of the app through a spokesperson, saying: “This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it. There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN”. Noem’s comments came hours after Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, also criticized CNN for its reporting on the IceBlock app. “It’s disgusting,” Homan said during an appearance on the rightwing commentator Benny Johnson’s internet show. “I can’t believe we live in a world where the men and women in law enforcement are the bad guys. It’s already a dangerous job.” Homan had been asked about the app, which was created to report sightings of Ice agents in any given area. Software developer Joshua Aaron recently told CNN that he had launched the app “when I saw what was happening in this country”.

The Trump Regime’s fascistic war on the media expands to threats to prosecute CNN over its reporting on the ICEBlock app that tracks the activities of ICE goons.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Allies Want DOJ To Investigate CNN, Rising App That Tracks ICE Movements

(via ICEBlock - See Something, Tap Something)

ICEBlock is an innovative, completely anonymous crowdsourced platform that allows users to report Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity with just two taps on their phone. In recent years, ICE has faced criticism for alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations.