Feds want to know who has gun scope apps

Since its gun related I highly doubt Apple or Google will fight it if its signed off on.

More bad news. This sounds like government over reach to me.

Apple has a history of stonewalling anyone who wants their customers personal data. They seem to at least resist.

Don’t know if they have caved since.

Google on the other hand.....it’s surprising all the data they have isn’t public already.

It looks like someone is violating ITAR and selling them ultimately to the Taliban. The fed's easy solution is to try to grab the data on all the users and then sort out where the channel is. The obvious problem is it ensnares all the lawful users in government overreach, setting a precedent for future abuses. I doubt that current lawful users are an intended target, but it doesn't seem wise to be careless about their data.

Natural step, once they get rid of every semiauto firearm, because any could be machineguns (thanks anti bump fire guys), the next step would be to rid the world of “sniper rifles”, yeah that’s anything with an optic.

jmorris said:

Natural step, once they get rid of every semiauto firearm, because any could be machineguns (thanks anti bump fire guys), the next step would be to rid the world of “sniper rifles”, yeah that’s anything with an optic.

Click to expand...

Assualt Sniper Rifles capable of shooting bullets 3X the speed of sound a 1/4 mile away with precision accuracy... even at night..... while your children are sleeping.

earlthegoat2 said:

Apple has a history of stonewalling anyone who wants their customers personal data. They seem to at least resist.

Click to expand...

You have that completely backwards. iPhone has a back door big enough to pilot an aircraft carrier through for government investigations. I was at a conference years ago where a beat police officer was able to get iphone data turned over just by asking on the phone about an iphone 3G. And that was in 2008. They have not made any changes to their "security" since. iPhone puts latitude and longitude coordinates in every picture they take.

In any case, this sound like a huge waste of time. Going through 10,000 Google downloads alone to find one ATN scope that violates ITAR? Doesn't sound right to me.

"We are from the government and we are here to help!"

Got to keep an eye on our adversaries both foreign and domestic.

It is a double-edged sword, all law abiding gun owners applaud the government for wanting to stop a Taliban supply of scopes and they also do not want to empower the government beyond the Constitution; becomes difficult to define the enemy.

It's pretty thin gruel, would be a huge uproar if it was a dating app, or a political forum app.

ICE alleges ITAR violations based on materiel stopped at point of export. Then claims they can see where endusers are geolocated based on who has downloaded the app, and where the app is used. So, let's collect every bit of data to mine it.

Hmm, let's download every tinder user's infor to find out how many are actually prostitutes. No real difference.

Now, the app just allows a person to "see" through the scope remotely. Cannot fire the weapon. Pretty sure the scope has to be turned on locally, too.

Can't directly fire remotely, but think about a command and control center now having direct access to in-the-field scopes on a shouldered rifle, making a decision and giving an order. Significant upgrade to capability, no?

going out on a limb here but 'Company A' = ATN ?

Good thing the NRA and the GOP have the backs of gun owners.

I'm not worried there is probably government drone flying over my neighborhood as we speak. Soon they are going to have gun detection equipment at major communication hubs in large cities. Kinda reminds me of old movie entitled Total Recall. The future looks so bright one might need SPF 2000 sunblock and them sun glasses high mountain climbers use.

Any piece of technology with remote access is hackable and a poor piece of equipment for serious conflict. It is already well known every cell phone signal in a conflict zone can be intercepted and monitored and the location of thesignal pinpointed.
Hand held radios or anything emiting a strong enough signal to be seen gives away the location of the user.
Imagine an AWACs seeing the location and what the rifle is pointing at of anyone using this technology for miles in all directions. Or even just locating the cell phone location of anyone using the application and turning cell phone towers into weapons against the enemy. Would make it easy to know where to send the drone to bomb or tactical unit to raid wouldn't it?
If you cannot physically turn off all radios on a device, not just in software, it is poor technology for serious use. If it requires remote connection to even access features it is even worse.
Being electronic already makes such things highly vulnerable to EMP, jammers, and other electronic countermeasures, nevermind nuclear generated EMPs.

One day professional soldiers will be facing forces exploiting these same vulnerabilities in their own equipment. If you emit a signal all the time you are easily pinpointed and as good as dead. You won't sneak up on anything and the bomb/artillery knows where to go.
Cell phones are probably the greatest weapon the police state has ever had. Imagine everyone willingly bugging themselves with microphones, one or more cameras, and a constantly updating location. Back in Cold War times a lot of effort went into even getting microphones into a location, now everyone brings microphones, cameras, motion sensors, and other sensors just about everywhere for you.
With full lists of those it communicates with, and AI to analyze what eash user does and create a profile of them for review. Google is the biggest cell phone operating system provider with Android, keeping track of all of that and selling and making available the data on most people just as face book does to generate most of its revenue. (This website with google ads even keeps track of every user that visits it. So the cell phone/computer informs them of where data is being sent, and google ads informs them from the other direction of what is coming and from where. Google knows all and thats without even going into nodes and other things in between they have access to or control.)
Tying any piece of military or arms related hardware to cell phone use just makes it extremely vulnerable.