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Somehow, Android devices currently sold into both China and Russia both support sideloading apps, including VPNs. Apple has set up a situation where they are able to be used like this, and if you think that a country is going to put in laws to require phones work like this, the only reason that could even make sense is because Apple is willing to do so and has set the stage for it being normalized. As it stands, Apple fights tooth and nail against EU regulation of their business model and yet simultaneously goes far above and beyond what any other company is doing to comply with requests from totalitarian regimes? Apple--the company, sure, but also, concretely: the people who work there--are traitors to democracy. We simply shouldn't be willing to create technology where anyone could even come to us with such a request, even if it is the basis of a lucrative business model, as we KNOW totalitarian regimes will then take advantage of us as patsies for the subjugation of their people; and, if the resulting profit is just too lucrative for investors, businesspeople, and engineers to leave on the table, we should make it illegal. Back in 2017, I gave a long talk at Mozilla Privacy Lab focusing on this very topic, using numerous examples that are all copiously cited. It will never not be shocking to me that, given how clear and constant it is that centralized control WILL lead to corruption--if not on purpose then accidentally, and if not from the inside then from outside actors using coercive actions, legal or otherwise--that people continue to defend the construction of centralized empires :/. https://youtu.be/vsazo-Gs7ms |