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A comment on Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments. Parent comment

Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by sneak on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @05:25AM (#26645126)
Google refused to censor search in China, and got the GFE blocked by the GFW.

Later they bent over backwards to get back in with a special censored search (Project Dragonfly) which got "cancelled" due to western and employee backlash (but wasn't really), continued a bit in secret, then really cancelled (so it was reported).

Also, Qwest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by techrat on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @05:27AM (#26645144)
Google also allows app sideloading which is something that becomes critical during civil unrest in the countries mentioned in the article.
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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by brorfred on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @05:46AM (#26645264)
Sideloading also allows authoritarian regimes to add apps to your phone. See https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/02/chinese-border...
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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by Mindwipe on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @07:03AM (#26645732)
As opposed to not sideloading which... does exactly the same thing.

https://www.macrumors.com/2021/03/16/apple-to-offer-governme...

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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by brorfred on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @04:21PM (#26652609)
Not at all. I read that story as the suggested apps being on the AppStore and having gone through the normal vetting by Apple. If so, then the government doesn’t have access to any more backdoors than already potentially exists in for example WeChat or Alipay.
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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by ladyanita22 on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @05:48AM (#26645277)
Yes, it's a double-edged knife, but let's keep in mind that the government actually has enough power to spy its citizens without tampering the devices, with the social networks, cell locations...
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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by brorfred on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @04:24PM (#26652651)
Very true but a side loaded app can do so much more. Possibly even act as a key logger. Definitely provide info about all your whereabouts during protests.
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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by techrat on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @06:53PM (#26654188)
Good thing being able to sideload an app also implies that you can detect and disable or remove offending apps.

Something Apple still doesn't let you do.

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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by ladyanita22 on Monday April 05, 2021 @12:42AM (#26695425)
You can detect it, but I wouldn't be sure they allow you to remove other apps.

Certainly, once a device enters into China, it should be considered breached and insecure.

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Re:Apple's Cooperation with Authoritarian Governments by ladyanita22 on Wednesday March 31, 2021 @05:47AM (#26645271)
Yeah, despite not as free as common linux distributions (can Android even be considered Linux at all?), it is the better choice in these kind of situations.
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