This app has legitimate uses (custom tune performance on their engines) and also makes it easy to do illegal things. (Defeat emissions controls and roll coal.) The people who are using it to do illegal things are crying “privacy!” People who break the law generally do want less government power, more anonymity, etc. Sometimes they’ll argue the law is wrong and they should be allowed to break it, but I don’t think we’ll find many sympathizers of that here.

It’s a genuinely complicated issue, and relates to a lot of things in tech and software. But IMHO if an app makes it easy to do something illegal which is otherwise difficult, then there’s reason for the government to be interested. If that app could be written in a way that blocks the illegal behavior, and has chosen not to put those restrictions in place, then I think the government is justified in interfering.

That’s what seems to be happening here. I have a hard time believing that it would be difficult for EZ Lynk to distinguish between a “delete tune” that rolls coal or blows past emission regs and a legitimate clean tune. Maybe some things get blurry around the edges, but they’re clearly not even trying. And you know that’s why this app is popular. The clean tunes just don’t change anything much, because the manufacturer already tunes the engine for maximum legal power, or close to it.