There was one thing Cook said during his appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday that I found very disappointing. One of the representatives asked Cook about the removal of a number of Parental Control apps from the App Store around the same time Screen Time was introduced. Cook said the third-party apps were removed because they were misusing Apple’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) program. Those apps, he said, were removed for the safety of the children.
I have no problem with that. The guys I work with at SecureMac dislike those third-party apps because who knows who those third-parties are? The controls given to them - in the opinion of more than a couple security professionals - leave children vulnerable in whole new ways. In fact, handing over those controls - in some ways - makes them more vulnerable, depending on the third-parties in question.
Whichever representative it was then turned Cook’s attention to Absher - an app put out by the Saudi government. This was a big story in early 2019. Developed for or by the government of Saudi Arabia, Engadget said at the time:
The mobile software lets Saudi men control and track travel permissions for women and migrant workers, leading to an outcry that Google and Apple were promoting "sixteenth century tyranny.”
When the story was big, Tim Cook was asked about it. Here are the first two lines of a piece from Apple Insider in February of last year:
Apple CEO Tim Cook has promised his company will "take a look" at Absher, a Saudi government app with a feature letting men control the travel of their wives and daughters.
"I haven't heard about it," Cook said in an NPR interview (…). "But obviously we'll take a look at it if that's the case."
The representative questioning Cook about Absher is under the impression that it uses the same MDM program as the banned Parental Controls apps. She wanted to know why it was allowed to stay in the App Store while the other apps were removed.
Cook said he didn’t know about the Saudi app, but that he would look into it. Which is starting to sound familiar.
