Looks like what you might expect in a standard marketing app from a consultancy. They probably hired someone to develop it, that shop used their standard app architecure which includes location tracking code and the other stuff.
If only the US Digital Service still existed as an agency to do this right. Too bad it's now been hollowed out to be DOGE, subject to multiple active lawsuits.
The location tracking code is within the OneSignal SDK - which is just a standard messaging platform for sending emails/push messages to users. It doesn't have some magical permissions bypass, the app itself has to request it.
And r8 which does tree shaking to remove dead code is not smart enough to understand react native so it won't strip it out without extra work from the developer.
Cross referencing these different things in the article to other apps that exist was my first thought as these seem pretty generic and probably reused from somewhere else.
The Polish covid quarantine app was famously adapted from some app for store inspectors or something, as it already implemented most of the required functionalities, like asking for photos via push at random times, sending them along with a location etc.
They likely did a search-and-replace on the brand name, so you had strings like 'your invoices from Home Quarantine inc' in the code.
Not a bad thing per se, getting the app out the door asap was definitely a priority in that project for understandable reasons, but funny nonetheless.
I think its cost over $5mm at this point, and the website doesn't exist. Oh, the company that built the site is owned by, I think the spouse of a council member, or something of that ilk.
Has the Hatch Act ever been enforced? Every administration in the last 20+ years have had people violate it but as far as I can tell nobody has been found guilty.
But snark aside, the next elections will be decided around damage control. Yes, the old school dems are pretty spineless (corrupt) but i guess even they feel the temptation of revenge and taking out political opponents for good. I really hope the new generation of democrats succeeds and breaks the corruption ties.
Thank you for understanding. I'm pointing things like Obama "looking forward not backward" and not punishing Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Condi, etc for war crimes and illegal warmongering which leads directly to today's current illegal Iran invasion.
We will need actual punishments for everyone who illegally defunded (or funded) programs, got us into the Iran invasion, embezzled and lined their pockets with corruption etc etc etc.
> Hatch Act won't be enforced until the next administration and next DOJ.
How did that last administration's dwelling on persecuting the one before it turn out?
While I don't like the current one and certainly agree that some of its actions are totally unethical, once it's over can we just move on and look forward, not back?
The only possible way this country has a future is if crime is actually punished. If the members of this current administration who committed criminal acts do not actually suffer the consequences then what is to stop the next one?
Without consequences for illegal behaviour, there's no incentive for bad actors to not continue acting bad. This, in no small part, explains why we are where we are today - a misplaced attempt to 'move forward' by ignoring illegal actions.
Without holding those who do wrong to account, positive movement will always be dogged or straight-up negated by those who do wrong without facing justice.
That'll only work here if there are reforms to the pardon power while we're at it. Any convictions a Democratic administration manages to obtain will be pardoned the next time a Republican gets in.
What do you mean by dodgy meds? These are just the normal meds you can get at any pharmacy. They also aren't even peddling them. They just link to pharmacies or provide discount codes.
