<story><title>Google siding with Saudi Arabia, refuses to remove government app tracking women</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/absher-google-refuses-to-remove-saudi-govt-app-that-tracks-women-2019-3</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>pgeorgi</author><text>The &amp;quot;gov app tracking women&amp;quot; angle is a PR stunt by international advocacy groups and it points at the wrong problem.&lt;p&gt;The app provides various official services, among them a digitized version of the &amp;quot;yellow sheet&amp;quot; a legal guardian has to fill out for a woman to be able to leave the country. (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rt.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;women-tracking-saudi-arabia-359&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.rt.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;women-tracking-saudi-arabia-359&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; from 2012 describes this particular system, the app apparently integrates it with more digital services).&lt;p&gt;The alternative isn&amp;#x27;t freedom of movement, it&amp;#x27;s having to get a signature on paper and potentially personal appearance of the legal guardian, which is harder to get (this includes: forge) than a button click on a website. As a remedy for that reduced trust in the system, it sends an SMS - to the very same device.&lt;p&gt;There are activists in Saudi Arabia (see for example &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;monaeltahawy&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1095360734798721025&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;twitter.com&amp;#x2F;monaeltahawy&amp;#x2F;status&amp;#x2F;1095360734798721025&lt;/a&gt;) who see value in that type of app because the degree of automation it brings makes it easier to leave the country without supervision (e.g. by stealing the legal guardian&amp;#x27;s phone).</text></comment>
<story><title>Google siding with Saudi Arabia, refuses to remove government app tracking women</title><url>https://www.businessinsider.com/absher-google-refuses-to-remove-saudi-govt-app-that-tracks-women-2019-3</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>q3k</author><text>Interesting comments in the Play Store: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=sa.gov.moi&amp;amp;hl=en&amp;amp;showAllReviews=true&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;apps&amp;#x2F;details?id=sa.gov.moi&amp;amp;hl=...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>