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Russia Demands LinkedIn App Takedown, Apple and Google Comply (fortune.com)
Russia has forced Apple and Google to remove the LinkedIn mobile app from their Russian application markets, the latest chapter in a months-long campaign against the professional networking site. From a report on Fortune: A recently-passed Russian law requires that any company holding data on Russians house that data within Russia. Russia began blocking LinkedIn's website last November under that law, which some critics argue is an indirect form of censorship. The removal of the LinkedIn app from Apples App Store and Google's Play shows the willingness of major internet gatekeepers to comply with individual nations' data-control laws, on both the web and mobile devices.
Post firsts you
Just another reason Free Software is still relevant in the era of the app store.
Yeah. I don't like Putin in the least. That said, I'm more and more uneasy seeing how "our" and "their" leaders are resembling more and more each other -- and this with the consent (no: with loud acclamation!) of the majority (btw. as Putin or Erdogan have).
Fucking scary, if you ask me.
If anyone is so overwhelmingly attracted to the idea of allowing a company like Apple or Google to control the "application market" that they see, then they deserve to not have many applications, and for their computer to be significantly less capable than everyone else's. The whole point of turning all your selection power over to some company, is to personally have less power. So this works out great.
Meanwhile, in Real Life, the market simply is the market. Nobody can remove someone else's product from it. Imagine how amazingly absurd that would be. The only way to get to that level of absurdity, would be to buy a computer where someone else controls what software you're allowed to use.
Well now he can use both.
Android users can easily recover.
If Russia has any clue, the LinkedIn domains are already blacklisted. Removing the apps shouldn't be much more than adding insult to injury.
And since Android users could sideload it, it's practically ineffective unless Apple owns a much larger chunk of the Russian market than they did last time I looked.
Log in or piss off.
The removal of the LinkedIn app from Apples App Store and Google's Play shows the willingness of major internet gatekeepers to comply with individual nations' data-control laws, on both the web and mobile devices.
Since exactly when have any company on earth managed to ignore the existing laws in countries where they operate?
I would imagine both their apps and the website pull the data from no Russian servers. So is linkedin.com blocked in Russia?
Trump uses iPhone. His team uses an Android.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
How would Trump get his money transferred then?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
I don't give a goddam rat's ass about LinkedIn.
It's a spammy piece of shit that's been hacked over and over again and it's useless a tits on a boar.
It's business model is just like the fucking dating sites.
--
Russian is a sovereign country and can do whatever the shit they want.
I'm in another sovereign country and I convinced management that LinkedIn is crappy.
It's banned.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Do we get to push our laws into foreign countries?
If so, can foreign countries start enforcing their laws in our country?
Their house, their business. Our house, our business.
Push products they do want and maybe they'll change the mind on products they don't.
And seriously, would you want your private information stored on a server in a foreign country? Seems like a no brainer for Russia.
Work Safe Porn
But apple will not help the FBI! trump needs to put tim cook in his place.
Why are they so impatient?
Just a few more weeks and every database in the US will be hosted in Russia.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I can get paid for liking Russua, Putin and Trump? Where do i sign up?
Is all the data in Google Play and Apple app store about Russians stored on servers in Russia?
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
They still supply lots of fine porn.
Russia is doing the right thing for their citizens here. App owner refused to store citizen data in country, app gets blocked. That's how it SHOULD be. Otherwise, your citizen's data is available to others without going through your country's due process. Worse, if it's stored in the US (where I live) there is no due process if the data isn't stored in your home.
Excellent point... and in theory, the internet should route around disruption like censorship.
Unfortunately, legal jurisdiction on the Internet is the quintessential slippery slope. I would love to hear ways to deal with the inherent conflict, but as it stands today there is no easy way to avoid lowest-common denominator compliance.
Like many of you, I was wondering "OK, so why don't they just spin up a few AWS or Azure instances in Russia to make their government happy?"
Then I realized that AWS doesn't have a hosting center in Russia. Neither does Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.
All of a sudden, it looks like they would have to make a custom one off server farm to appease Russia. It probably isn't worth the effort for them to do so.
While both have very dubious accounting practices, only one foundation actually helps people. Well, people besides Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Had it been American authorities, Apple would've put up a heroic fight. But helping Russian (and Chinese) efforts to keep tabs on their citizens and enable dragnets by foreign governments — well, that's just complying with local laws, nothing to see here.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
If all they are trying to do is keep their citizen's data within their own country and out of foreign hands, I don't see the problem. We bitch when China hacks our credit cards, so finding legal loopholes to do the same thing when companies have no business to personal info isn't so different, regardless of how "righteous" you think yours is.
They've got a law that states companies holding data on their citizens must keep that data within their own borders. This is great, and they have good reason to have such a law. The icing on the cake is that they're actually trying to enforce the law.
LinkedIn, the world's largest spam network, being the current whipping boy is a bonus. I doubt LinkedIn has much of a Russian userbase, so if it comes down to it LinkedIn can just never comply with Russia's laws and Russia can't do shit beyond try to block their website in a continual cat and mouse game.
Google and Apple care about their Russian market enough to enforce Russia's laws. This isn't news. They already bend over backwards for China. The US government and media were hypercritical of China until Trump happened, now they're just trying to flip the script and put all of that bad juju on Russia.
The EU laws are similar, but different. They apply to companies with a presence in the EU, and protect the personal information of their citizens (data may not leave the country without dealing with more red tape). The RU law requires that the data be written to a server in Russia first, but the data may then leave the country - it protects their ability to access that data, rather than protecting the data. The impact is similar, but the differences are quite important.
https://slashdot.org/comments....
Here is a scenario. Let's say I was a Russian who came to the US for a few days, visited the Apple Store on my phone, downloaded all the banned apps, including LinkedIn, and then flew back there.
Once I was back, how would either the Apple Store - or the Play Store - not having the app online - be of any use? Particularly if I disable the app store once I am back?
That's backwards. His posts on Twitter are from an Android device, and he's known to use a Samsung phone. His campaign team was posting using an iPhone.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
I stand corrected. Thanks.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
How would Trump get his money transferred then?
Operatives exchange briefcases full of cash for envelopes of IOUs at Checkpoint Charlie.
Where is the link to this story? :P
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Some people don't like being eskimo brothers with a whole country.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure