Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/03/theres-an-app-for-that.html
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Score another one for evil (or, post-2015, for doing the wrong thing).
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In one of those Alternate Histories where the South survived, apps like this are probably blowing links in the underground railway. (Yes, like our timeline, everyone has cell phones.)
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Looks like it’s time for another one of those Google Employee Protests™. It’s the only way any positive change gets enacted at the Non-Evil Empire.
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Do they have public transportation in Saudi Arabia? I’m surprised that they haven’t integrated Absher with bus passes.
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I wouldn’t be sad if Google and Apple blocked this app. And if a US state set up a similar service to help parents block their kids’ access to birth control, I wouldn’t be sad if Google and Apple blocked that, either.
They could probably craft a blanket policy against processing third parties’ personal details without their consent, which would cover both those cases. That’s probably not a bad idea (although I’m not sure how you square it with the separate insistence that platform vendors shouldn’t be allowed to restrict what apps one can install).
In general, though, it is a double-edged sword to wish for private companies to preëmpt local laws. Even Saudi citizens have some influence over the laws that govern them; no one has any well-defined influence over what norms a private company might enforce.
There’s certainly a case to be made that these companies shouldn’t do business in Saudi Arabia / China / etc. at all, if their employees and customers in the rest of the world can’t accept what it means to obey the laws there. But these companies’ business is to facilitate everyday life, and if they operate in Saudi Arabia, that means facilitating some bad shit, because that bad shit is part of everyday life there.
(Even if they banned this app, they’re obviously not going to ban the use of GMail, iMessage, Chrome or Safari for the same purpose).
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Sadly, you could also make the argument that it’d cover a large chunk of Google’s business, if you take the old fashioned stance that you can’t be expected to abide by a contract you can’t understand.
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Slave catchers in app form. (Enslaved to their own male family members, but slavery none the less.)
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If corporations are people, and people are not allowed to conduct themselves out of country in a fashion not allowable under US law, then perhaps we need to ask if this app would be illegal if used on people in the US. If so, then surely we have a “person” conducting illegal business outside of the US, which would be subject to fines and jail time.
I’m going to suggest a total suspension of US business until such time that all “illegal” apps are withdrawn. That seems reasonable.
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Since the app allows tracking of “employees” aka migrant workers aka slaves (in many cases), your analogy is even closer to the truth.
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Dear Google:
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So, US Senators are asking private US companies to take a stand agains internal laws of a US client state? This strikes me as an abdication of responsibility. How about those Senators use their power in the Senate to stop (100%) giving the Saudis military aid, before they complain about some company hosting a Saudi government app.
In this case, they are, as representatives of the US government, asking these companies to take a stand against a government that is directly supported and propped up by the US government.
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There are not that many billionaires in the world. We should make an app that let’s 7 billion people check in and tell us where Sundar Pichai is at all fucking times.
Next time Bill wants a Dick’s Burger he should be surrounded and ripped asunder.
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It’s not an analogy.
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Good point, although I don’t consider women as chattel to be any less slavery.
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I wasn’t suggesting it was, just that there was more to the story.
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Google, our partners in peace.
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That’s true, although if Google had such a rule, they could at least point to their farcical clickwrap “contracts” as the flimsy excuse for why it applies to Saudi domestic-abuse apps but not Google’s own products. It would be slightly more plausible in Apple’s case; in fact, I’m not sure they couldn’t boot this app based on their existing App Store rules in this area. If they wanted to.
Neither of those things is the case, though…
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