A Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), will investigate the “Absher” application created by the Saudi Arabian government that allows men to control the “digital steps” of women in their family. The information was provided by the company's president, Tim Cook: “I had not heard of it yet but obviously we will look at the case"He assured.
According to Business Insider, Absher, which has a community of 11 million users, allows men to enroll their women as "addicts" and to limit their ability to travel. They can decide how many trips and how long women can travel.
Absher is an application that brings the country's discriminatory laws to the virtual world.
In an interview with an American radio, Tim Cook said he was not informed by his staff about the existence of the software, but that he will ensure that it is evaluated by the App Store teams. The application may go unnoticed as a software common to the citizen, it allows, for example, the consultation of the driver's license situation, the payment of fines and access to other official services.
Amnesty International, on the other hand, considered the application a reflection of Saudi Arabia's “systematic practices of discrimination”, in a comment published by the Washington Post. The Human Rights Observatory has directly asked Apple and Google to remove the program from their app stores.
A Google has yet to comment on the matter or possible actions that could be taken against Absher.
