The developer of ICEBlock, an app that let people crowdsource sightings of ICE officials, has said he is determined to fight back after Apple removed the app from its App Store on Thursday. The removal came after pressure from Department of Justice officials acting at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to Fox which first reported the removal.

“I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move,” Joshua Aaron told 404 Media. “ICEBlock is no different from crowd sourcing speed traps, which every notable mapping application, including Apple's own Maps app, implements as part of its core services. This is protected speech under the first amendment of the United States Constitution.”

“We are determined to fight this with everything we have. Our mission has always been to protect our neighbors from the terror this administration continues to reign down on the people of this nation. We will not be deterred. We will not stop. #resist,” Aaron’s message continued.

The app worked by letting people report sightings of ICE in the app in close proximity to them based on their current location. Aaron has said that the app protects users’ privacy; a security researcher largely corroborated those findings. Others have criticized Aaron for allegedly not developing the app with input from people who defend people from deportation.

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Do you know anything else about this removal? Do you work at Apple or ICE? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.

Aaron provided 404 Media with a copy of the email he received from Apple regarding the removal. It says “Upon re-evaluation, we found that your app is not in compliance with the App Review Guidelines.” It then points to parts of those guidelines around “Objectionable Content,” and specifically “Defamatory discriminatory, or mean-spirited content, including references or commentary about religion, race, sexual orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted groups, particularly if the app is likely to humiliate, intimidate, or harm a targeted individual or group.”

The email then says “Information provided to Apple by law enforcement shows that your app violates Guideline 1.1.1 because its purpose is to provide location information about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such officers individually or as a group.”
The email shared by Aaron.
The email says people who have already downloaded the app will be able to continue using it, but they will be unable to re-download it from the App Store.

ICEBlock rose to prominence in June when CNN covered the app. Shortly after, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) head Kritsi Noem then said that “we’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute [CNN] for that.”
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Bondi told Fox “ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed. This Department of Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day to keep Americans safe.”

“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock app from their App Store—and Apple did so,” Bondi added according to the Fox report. Fox says authorities also found Joshua Jahn, the suspected shooter at an ICE facility in September in which a detainee was killed, searched his phone for various tracking apps, including ICEBlock, before attacking the facility.

Aaron told 404 Media “Apple has claimed they received information from law enforcement that ICEBlock served to harm law enforcement officers. This is patently false.”

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

404 Media

2025-07-15 14:09:36

Immigration Raid Tracking App ‘ICE Block’ Keeps Your Data Private, Researcher Finds

ICE Block, an app that lets users warn others about the location of ICE officers, and which for a short while was the top of the social media App Store chart, does protect users’ privacy and doesn’t share your location with third parties, according to a recent analysis from a security researcher. ICE Block already claimed that it did not collect any data from the app; the analysis now corroborates that.

“It’s not uploading your location at all, when you make a report that report isn’t associated with your device in any way, and there are no third party services that it talks to or sends data to,” Cooper Quintin, senior public interest technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), who analyzed the ICE Block app, told 404 Media.

ICE Block lets users report nearby sightings of ICE officials. The app launched in April, but skyrocketed in popularity after CNN covered the app in June. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) head Kritsi Noem then said that “we’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute [CNN] for that.”

There is no indication that what ICE Block is doing is illegal, nor the coverage of the app. Its App Store page says “Stay informed about reported ICE sightings, within a 5 mile radius of your current location, in real-time while maintaining your privacy.”
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Joshua Aaron, ICE Block’s developer, told 404 Media “there are no legal issues with the app. Multiple constitutional and criminal attorneys looked at it before it launched and all agreed this is protected under the First Amendment.”

He added Quintin’s analysis “was great because he confirmed everything we’ve been saying about the app. It is 100% anonymous and we are not collecting or storing any identifiable user information.” Aaron declined to say how much the app was costing to run. He said Apple has not contacted him at all about the app and doesn’t expect them to.

To analyze ICE Block, Quintin said he viewed its network traffic, which would show what data was being transferred or not, viewed logs, and looked up what software libraries were used in the app.

404 Media recently reported on a different app called FuckLAPD.com that uses facial recognition to reveal the identity of LAPD officers. The developer of that project also made ICEspy, which is designed to provide the name of ICE officials, but at the time the underlying dataset was out of date.

ICEBlock climbs to the top of the App Store charts after officials slam it

The application, which allows users to add a pin on a map to show where ICE agents have recently been spotted, has climbed to the to the top of the App Store...

^{Mariella Moon (Engadget)}