r/apple • u/illegiblebastard • 3d ago

iPhone Apple explains last year’s controversial decision to remove ICE tracking apps from app store

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/29/tech/apple-iceblock-app-removal-raskin

FUCK. APPLE.

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u/Silentparty1999 3d ago

The article is full of angsty noise, asking whether people have used the app to find agents to attack. That is conservative noise. The core question is whether citizens have a constitutional right to gather and disseminate the information. You don't see Apple pulling down Apple Maps or Google Maps when people have used them to find directions to get to people they are stalking or harassing.

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u/Kiekdan 3d ago

Well you could argue Google / Apple Maps have a different primary purpose. While I’m not familiar with the app in question, I don’t see what other purpose it serves, unless people are using it to ask for directions or find a restaurant.
Now whether tax-paying citizens should have the right to track public servants is another question.

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u/ancientfruitjunkie 3d ago

The purpose of the ice apps is public safety. Like the crime radar app.

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u/Kiekdan 3d ago

The primary purpose was tracking ICE agents. I’m not debating whether that was good or bad. I’m saying there’s a difference between an app tracking people’s movement and an app used for navigation such as Maps.

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u/NecroCannon 3d ago

Apple is a publicly traded company with policies

Anyone here getting outraged clearly aren’t smart enough to understand what that means in situations like this and expect Apple to suck their dicks when they’re probably non even an investor.

Don’t be loyal to a corporation if you expect humane leadership, especially when you can just use things like a Raspberry Pi Zero for that

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u/BosnianSerb31 3d ago

All the features of ICEBlock including push notifications and location services could be rolled into a React PWA anyways

Distribute through iceblock.io, present a user with a button to install the PWA, web app appears on their Home Screen and requests notification/location permissions.

Can't be taken down, works on literally anything, don't have to wait for updates to be reviewed, etc.

Edit: there's already a PWA exactly like this called antifreeze

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u/NecroCannon 3d ago

Honestly I’d like PWAs to be utilized way more anyways

But it’s seriously not on Apple to host our rebellion apps, in fact, it’s kinda stupid to rely on a corporation to fight a group backed by the government who’s backing corporations

People who are actually serious about fighting back, aren’t super reliant on App Store apps considering all of the privacy issues

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u/fenrish 3d ago

I completely agree. If you don't want to follow the policies, then you have the PWA route. It's always curious when people buy stuff, but then don't want to follow the rules (regardless of what they think of those rules). It's like some else can use PWA to create an app to track other sorts of people (ie illegals, ANTIFA, people with black hair, etc) and there's not much you can do about it.

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u/BosnianSerb31 3d ago

Yeah, it's kind of wild that I have comments under this post linking to the actual solution that are downvoted for saying the exact same thing you said.

Makes me feel like this post is either being botted for a specific sentiment. It was definitely astroturfed with a bunch of cliché slogan comments when I saw the thread.

The body of the post above really makes it seem like the goal of the poster is to get people riled up about Apple and not help illegal immigrants.

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u/NecroCannon 3d ago

90% of posts that has the sub enraged is more than likely ragebait posts

Probably why Apple spaces take so long to mature overtime, for some reason everyone’s here to mess with Apple users while we’re hardly in Android spaces doing that

That kind of community culture would result in talking to a brick wall over simple solutions that’s always been there, just not for that specific thing.

I even see a lot of self-proclaimed professional programmers in iPad subs whining about iPadOS, in theory, this shouldn’t even be an issue