At the 2025 HOPE conference, Joshua Aaron presented ICEBlock, an iPhone app designed to anonymously report and receive notifications about ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) sightings within a 5-mile radius. The app has become viral with over a million downloads, facing criticism and legal threats from political figures who accuse it of inciting violence or obstructing justice. Joshua and his family have received threats due to the app’s political sensitivity. Despite good intentions, ICEBlock has significant issues: 1. Lack of Community Input: The app was not developed in collaboration with immigrant defense groups or activists, resulting in a tool that does not meet their needs for protecting vulnerable populations. 2. Unverified Reports: ICE sightings submitted are not verified, causing many false positives—often people mistake non-ICE vehicles or personnel for ICE. This unverified information tends to cause panic rather than help. Established local groups focus on verifying reports and providing legal observers and community defense. 3. Privacy Claims Without Evidence: Joshua claims the app is “completely anonymous” and secure, but offers no published technical details or threat model. The app is not open source, and Joshua rejects collaboration or external audits, showing a lack of transparency. 4. Security Misunderstandings: Joshua demonstrated little understanding of key security concepts such as "warrant canaries," "reverse engineering," or "security through obscurity." He refuses to open source the app, citing fear of government access, but misunderstands that open-source software can be securely audited without trusting contributors individually. 5. Vulnerable Server Infrastructure: The server hosting ICEBlock shares resources with Joshua’s unrelated projects, runs outdated software, and may be vulnerable to attack, compromising the security of app data. 6. GPS Spoofing Concerns: Joshua claims abuse of the app through fake reports is limited by location radius restrictions, but does not account for simple GPS spoofing techniques that allow users to appear anywhere in the world. 7. Legal Preparedness: When asked about legal defenses like warrant canaries or handling government data requests, Joshua gave evasive or naïve answers, though he has support from organizations like EFF and ACLU. Ultimately, while ICEBlock aims to help immigrant communities, its lack of rigorous development practices, absence of community collaboration, unclear security posture, and risk of spreading misinformation render it more activist theater than an effective tool. The author encourages supporting established local immigrant defense networks for meaningful impact. Despite frustration, Joshua’s commitment is acknowledged, but open collaboration and transparency are urged for ICEBlock to become truly helpful.