DOJ Stopped From Requiring Apple and Google to Hand Over the Data of 100,000 People

A court has determined that the US DOJ cannot force Apple and Google to hand over the information of around 100,000 users of the EZ Lynk app.

The DOJ had previously tried to force Apple, Google, Amazon, and Walmart to hand over the data of every user who downloaded the EZ Lynk app or purchased an EZ Lynk device, which could include addresses, names, financial information, and plenty of other identifying information.

The DOJ, along with the EPA, is accusing EZ Lynk of selling so-called "defeat devices," or devices designed to bypass emissions controls inside vehicles.

EZ Lynk disputes this claim. The devices they sell, along with their mobile app, allow users to scan their onboard diagnostics system (OBD) and tune certain settings in the vehicle.

The request was described as "nearly unprecedented" by Inside EPA who originally reported on it, with the only similar example being a request for the data of people who purchased gun scope software (albeit significantly less than 100,000 people).

EZ Lynk's lawyers described the data as being of "low marginal utility" because investigating whether EZ Lynk sells a defeat device "does not require identifying each person who has used the product."

The US government had even previously requested that EZ Lynk create a backdoor in their product in 2019 to allow "government monitoring of unsuspecting users," a request which EZ Lynk refused.

Since Apple and Google's stores require an account to use, many users have their real names, emails, phone number, and other personal data tied to the apps they download. This creates a privacy issue that many people likely don't consider, and it means that if the government wants to demand information about what apps you download from these stores, Apple and Google are capable of providing it.

In this case, the request was blocked and Apple and Google won't be providing the personally-identifiable information of 100,000 users. But this doesn't mean that every EZ Lynk user is safe; if anyone's personal data turns up in communications with the company, their data may not be protected.

Hopefully these types of broad, sweeping demands for data of innocent people don't become a theme with the DOJ in future cases, especially since this time it failed. But it's a stark reminder to be careful about what data you give out, even in seemingly innocent activities like app downloads.