4 ms·

Why can't the App Store and Google Play add country-of-origin labeling for applications? I'm against the US banning apps, but having a clear warning message de

Why can't the App Store and Google Play add country-of-origin labeling for applications? I'm against the US banning apps, but having a clear warning message detailing the risks around downloading apps Made in China (eg, history of widespread Chinese government-sanctioned economic espionage) seems reasonable and appropriate.

throwaway4good 6y ago
So what would it say for TikTok?
- someperson 6y ago
  "This app is developed in Beijing, China by ByteDance" Then clicking the info button could then say "Data on this platform is typically hosted on servers based in the United States but may be accessed by ByteDance engineers and governmental authorities based in China. Always be careful what you share." I think such country-of-origin disclaimers should apply to all apps (including Facebook, GMail, YouTube etc). We have country-of-origin labeling for all other goods and services. Clear labeling helps put the onus on the user to determine if using such an application is a risk they're willing to take.
  - throwaway4good 6y ago
    But that is not true at least if you ask TikTok. Do you want Apple or another authority to write this?
    - someperson 6y ago
      Just like Lumen database, the EFF could do it. ByteDance claims their a Cayman Islands company. But their engineers are based in China. The text would be computer generated based on a database: "This app is developed in $locations by $company. Data on this platform is typically hosted in $data_center_location but may be accessed by $company engineers and $country_specific_dangers." For a remote-first company like GitLab, I would have the following text: "This app is developed by a team of remote engineers in various countries by GitLab Inc. Data on this platform is typically hosted in geographically nearby data centers (typically Singapore, South Korea), but may be accessed by GitLab engineers, and the governments of the nations in which these engineers live" There's only 195 countries on Earth, and maybe 1,000 popular applications. A single individual could build such a database and open-source it. It's not a big task at all and brings much more transparency to end-users.

throwaway4good 6y ago

So what would it say for TikTok?

someperson 6y ago
"This app is developed in Beijing, China by ByteDance" Then clicking the info button could then say "Data on this platform is typically hosted on servers based in the United States but may be accessed by ByteDance engineers and governmental authorities based in China. Always be careful what you share." I think such country-of-origin disclaimers should apply to all apps (including Facebook, GMail, YouTube etc). We have country-of-origin labeling for all other goods and services. Clear labeling helps put the onus on the user to determine if using such an application is a risk they're willing to take.
- throwaway4good 6y ago
  But that is not true at least if you ask TikTok. Do you want Apple or another authority to write this?
  - someperson 6y ago
    Just like Lumen database, the EFF could do it. ByteDance claims their a Cayman Islands company. But their engineers are based in China. The text would be computer generated based on a database: "This app is developed in $locations by $company. Data on this platform is typically hosted in $data_center_location but may be accessed by $company engineers and $country_specific_dangers." For a remote-first company like GitLab, I would have the following text: "This app is developed by a team of remote engineers in various countries by GitLab Inc. Data on this platform is typically hosted in geographically nearby data centers (typically Singapore, South Korea), but may be accessed by GitLab engineers, and the governments of the nations in which these engineers live" There's only 195 countries on Earth, and maybe 1,000 popular applications. A single individual could build such a database and open-source it. It's not a big task at all and brings much more transparency to end-users.