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Trump Team Has Full Meltdown Over CNN Story on ICE-Tracking App (newrepublic.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 19 points 1 year ago* (6 children)

You don't need a user account or password to receive a push notification.

You just need to have the app installed. The app can be configured by the developer to receive push notifications.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    And the developer needs a device ID for that. Which is their objection: https://www.iceblock.app/android

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (4 children)

    How do you suppose APNS knows which device to deliver the notification to?

    Something that... links it to the device? Like, a unique ID that Apple can identify?

    It sounds like he thinks HE has to store this information, which is simply incorrect. It will obviously be stored by Google in Firebase, and by Apple wherever that gets stored, but HE does not have to store it.

    I write apps for a living. I have users subscribe and unsubscribe to channels, and at no point is there a user account with password involved in either iOS or Android. If you want the memory of which channels they have subscribed to to persist across uninstall/reinstalls or different devices, then yes, but for an app like this you don't need to persist those settings.

    At any point the government could subpoena who's received pushes (or at least, who's registered to) from both Google and Apple.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    I’m not the developer, but I do also write app backends for a living so I know there is some nuance that you’re skipping over in your response. But if you have a way to do this completely anonymous on android I’d suggest offering help to the developer who made this.

    Something that... links it to the device? Like, a unique ID that Apple can identify?

    APNS tokens are linked to the app install and renew on a certain timeline. Already making them not exactly the same as a device identifier.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    No, you're right, GOOGLE will take the device identifier, but him talking about how he would need to store it, and especially for channels where he talks about user names and passwords really makes me think that he thinks he personally has to do it, with his own backend storing it. (edit: The point is, that he doesn't HAVE to do it this way. You can, and it gives you more control, but you can let Google do it all. It's never anonymous with anyone though.)

    Apple knows which devices have the app installed. They would be able to link that back to the device if it was demanded, even if it is a bit more obscured.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Just figured I'd add Apples own documentation as well

    https://developer.apple.com/documentation/usernotifications/registering-your-app-with-apns

    Apple Push Notification service (APNs) must know the address of a user’s device before it can send notifications to that device. This address takes the form of a device token unique to both the device and your app. At launch time, your app communicates with APNs and receives its device token, which you then forward to your provider server. Your server includes that token with any notifications it sends.

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