If this is true...

Apple and Google have been accused of helping to "enforce gender apartheid" in Saudi Arabia, by offering a sinister app which allows men to track women and stop them leaving the country.

Both Google Play and iTunes host Absher, a government web service which allows men to specify when and how women can cross Saudi borders, and to get close to real-time SMS updates when they travel.

Absher also has benign functions — like paying parking fines — but its travel features have been identified by activists and refugees as a major factor in the continued difficulty women have leaving Saudi Arabia.

Neither Apple nor Google responded to repeated requests for comment from INSIDER over several days prior to publication.

[www.thisisinsider.com]

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My name is DP, and I approve this message.

I love the smell of the first WTF??!? of the morning.

LOL....we should sanction them or prevent them from selling their oil...but of course we won't.

Oh, puh-leeeze...

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And hope is a lousy defense.

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What happens if the women don't take their phones with them?

Quote
testcase
What happens if the women don't take their phones with them?

Maybe ups the odds in their favor a tetch.

But then paranoid hubs calls their phone to check on them. They don’t answer (likely a possible high crime in and of itself). Enough unanswered or returned calls and the gendarmes get alerted and the jig is up.

With this electronic leash feature actually being a thing, I’m not sure how much chattel a woman out in public without a cellphone would raise an eyebrow.

Well, I thought this might garner more discussion than this. I see this as a problem with, for all the talk of social injustice (for example), it still seems that the Almighty Dollar and shareholders are more important than doing what's right.

For Tim Cook to talk about the courage of being gay and fighting the bigotry, he then starts selling iPhones in Iran which allows gays to be executed. Apple, (and Google, Facebook, et al.), kowtow to the PRC censorship rules in China, again to sell iPhones in China.



Now this, that actually seems that Apple (and the others) are actively adding to the oppression of women in other parts of the world, yet again, to make the shareholders happy.

I'm sure other phone manufacturers have or are thinking of adding an app like this and I am going to be researching it. I know-many of you are thinking (or justifying in your minds) that we have to have our phones so what can we do about it? But isn't that the problem? We justify our need for our phones so something the doesn't directly affect us is ignored.

I'm not trying to get this pushed to the Other Side. This, to me, is just a question of Apple and Tim Cook, and the Others, to do something for all their talk about social injustice...

Pull the app.

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Disclaimer: This post is checked for correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Any attempts at humor are solely the responsibility of the author and bear no claim that any and all readers will approve or appreciate said attempt at humor.
My name is DP, and I approve this message.

As far as selling phones in particular markets, I can see a valid and persuasive argument being made that once you add up the pros and cons, it’s better to get the technology in peoples’ hands and rely on the historically proven ability of people finding ways to circumvent restrictions that initially come with it versus flat out denying them access to the technology at all.

The same applies to apps to an extent, and of course once some apps are highlighted and and problematic aspects called out, some apparent are pulled. I’ll be interested to see how vendors react in this case.