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New apps help immigrants navigate Trump’s deportation crackdown (restofworld.org)

submitted 2 days ago by alyaza@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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Hack Latino is an artificial intelligence-powered app for Latinos in the U.S., made by the Georgia-based entrepreneur Adrian Lozano Jr. It offers restaurant suggestions and consular information to more than 30,000 users, along with a key feature to keep them safe: a map of ICE sightings, launched in April.

It is one of a slew of mobile platforms created by nonprofit organizations, independent developers, and foreign governments, which have cropped up amid a surge in immigration raids in the U.S. The Donald Trump administration has vowed to enact mass deportations from the U.S., home to some 13.7 million undocumented individuals. The digital tools provide services such as “Know Your Rights” guides, legal information, and emergency resources to help the community prepare for potential encounters with immigration authorities.

Apps such as Hack Latino or digital tools like Stop ICE Alerts function much like the community patrols of the 1990s, when neighbors and activists in neighborhoods with a large Hispanic presence would warn others about the arrival of authorities — except these apps have the added benefit of real-time technology, said Pedro Rios, director of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that supports migrants and refugees.

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[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I'm torn on this for any app-operating companies/orgs based in the US.

The real-time maps mean at best they're able to see at least the IPs of users, and at worst, a ton of device or personal information (depending on what perms are granted to the apps). This would be a treasure-trove of info for ICE. A lot of women stopped using period-tracker apps for a reason after Roe was overturned.

Also, unless people are side-loading the apps, Google or Apple will also know exactly who downloaded them, since you can't download through their app stores anonymously.

There are websites with real-time information that don't force you to install an app to view, and visiting a website rather than using an app makes it much easier to minimize the information you're leaking.

I'm glad that some of these apps are shutting down preemptively if they are certain they don't possess the resources, or are located in a safe enough place, to ensure their users' privacy. Ideally they would partner with a legal entity outside the US to operate the app instead, but obviously that's a big burden.

[–] PenguinTD@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

depending on how they implement it. ie. the covid map and wild fire map apps from the BC gov doesn't actually pull any information from your phone except location if you turn on the proximity alert. IF enough people download the app it would be very hard to locate the user even if you have location alert. It is a good idea to download EVEN if you are not in the targeted group cause projectiles won't stop mid air because you don't look like Latino. Simply be near the area of active raid carries risk.

It can be done proper and be great help for people either want to avoid be in the area or trying to help out fellow human beings.

[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

If they're operating in the US, it doesn't matter whether the app is intentionally pulling unnecessary information, there are still server logs showing the IP of each request being made for the real-time updates (ISPs also will have logs of the connections, even if they can't see the SSL traffic directly). That IP + timestamp would let the government know (with the help of your ISP, who we know from the NSA leaks are all sharing info without asking for warrants) exactly who you are.

If you are routing all your traffic through a VPN, you can make that much harder to correlate, but unless you validate on the wire or in the code that the app isn't sending e.g. a device ID or any other kind of unique identifier, it could still end up compromising you. A webpage just intrinsically doesn't carry the same level of risk as a local app.

That's why, as the article notes, many of these have been shutting down preemptively; they know they could be putting their users at risk.

[–] bytesonbike@discuss.online 5 points 2 days ago

Love it. This is what we need more of.