Putin Signs Law Making Russian Apps Mandatory On Smartphones, Computers (reuters.com) 64
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed legislation requiring all smartphones, computers and smart TV sets sold in the country to come pre-installed with Russian software. Reuters reports: The law, which will come into force on July 1 next year, has been met with resistance by some electronics retailers, who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them. The law has been presented as a way to help Russian IT firms compete with foreign companies and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device. The country's mobile phone market is dominated by foreign companies including Apple, Samsung and Huawei. The legislation signed by Putin said the government would come up with a list of Russian applications that would need to be installed on the different devices.
FINALLY (Score:5, Insightful)
and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device
I'm sooooooo glad I won't have to be burdened with downloading my own software anymore! What. A. Chore. It's so much better to have someone else decide for me what to put on my phone! This is the brave new world the prophets foretold!
Is Apple going to fight this? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm kind of curious to see how Apple responds to this.
Not that I think that Apple really cares about free speech or equal rights of Russian citizens (Their attitude towards China kinda shows that they don't), but they REALLY don't like it when other companies screw with their walled garden of preinstalled Apple applications.
When you mess around with Apple's bit fat profit margins, THAT is when the teeth come out.
Re:Is Apple going to fight this? (Score:5, Funny)
I wonder if they will require an app to be localized in Russian for it to display on the Soviet app store.
It will soon look like a real Soviet store then, with nothing available.
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They will find themselves vindicated, for finally there is proof that those smarty-phones are just the spying device for big guberment as they all suspected the whole time.
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If you wait online long enough, you can download an app, though it will be a cheap version of what you really wanted in the first place. Eventually you will have to pay people to wait online for you.
How will Apple respond? With more lube, naturally. (Score:3)
They already have a history of bending over for Moscow Midget (not to be confused with Moscow Mitch, a different kind of midget) - by redrawing maps to his liking. [fortune.com]
Apple just loves the feel of a totalitarian dick brutally penetrating its insides.
Next to money that's its favorite thing in the world.
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So Apple will leave the Russia market. I mean what the fuck drugs are you people on. Governments have to ask permission from corporations to enact laws, "who say the legislation was adopted without consulting them". I mean like seriously what the fuck is wrong with your people, Since fucking when should governments ask permission from corporations to enact laws, like what the fuck are you people thinking. Governments should consult with us and then we tell the government what the fuck regulations will be ap
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This is you:
FUCK something FUCK something else FUCK everything FUCK you FUCK me FUCK FUCK FUCK whine whine whine.
Get a clue, and a life. Moron.
This is you. "I'm going to ignore your whole message because I apparently don't like swear words and want to be a fucking child about it."
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What message? There's no message there. Dude was comparing the oligarchs and mobsters of Russia with actual governments. That's an invalid comparison.
It's standard Russian troll whataboutism. "Whatabout all the other governments regulating corporations? Can't Russia do the same?"
But Russia is not like most governments, they are an authoritarian regime run by corrupt gangsters (insert more insane Russian whataboutism here, i.e. "But your country is just as bad!") and they do not have their citizen's best int
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Re:Is Apple going to fight this? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm kind of curious to see how Apple responds to this.
Not that I think that Apple really cares about free speech or equal rights of Russian citizens (Their attitude towards China kinda shows that they don't), but they REALLY don't like it when other companies screw with their walled garden of preinstalled Apple applications.
When you mess around with Apple's bit fat profit margins, THAT is when the teeth come out.
Yeah, no doubt!
That's why as of iOS 11 (or more likely, iOS12, articles vary on this) Apple actually allows you to Remove (not just "Hide") pre-loaded Applications on iOS and iPadOS.
https://9to5mac.com/2018/03/22... [9to5mac.com]
And here's a fairly long list of the Preinstalled Apps on iOS/iPadOS that can be deleted:
https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
That appears to be still unpossible with Android, at least without Rooting (which most Normals will never do).
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/... [makeuseof.com]
https://www.androidpit.com/how... [androidpit.com]
Yet Apple is always the Whipping Boy around here.
Wonder why?
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Everybody hates Google around here too. And Microsoft, and Mozilla, and systemd... Basically everything is shit now, even Linux.
https://it.slashdot.org/story/... [slashdot.org]
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Re: Is Apple going to fight this? (Score:1)
The reason a preinstalled app can't be removed from Android is because it's stored in the /system partition, which also holds much of the OS itself and is both read-only and integrity checked. Although you can remove them with root, it's not a good idea. This is a security feature of Android to have a clean separation of system data and userdata, and also puts the phone in its original state after a factory reset (which basically just wipes the /userdata partition.) Some apps are totally pointless to remove
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I was able to do it on my brother's S7 Edge without rooting by making use of adb.
Re: Is Apple going to fight this? (Score:1)
Wonder why?
For those who don't remember, Apple pulled a lot of crap. One good thing they pushed for, over 10 years ago, when moving from iPod to iPhone, was the general adoption of the 3.5mm audio jack.
In those days, every phone of every manufacturer somehow had to have a stupid proprietary headphone connection. The next phone would have a different one, etc.
Like I said, Apple pulled a lot of stupid crap, they made it not only acceptable to have a pho
Re:FINALLY (Score:5, Funny)
It's so much better to have someone else decide for me what to put on my phone!
Cellphones have been coming preloaded with useless crap and Google spyware for many years. The only new thing here is that some of the spyware will be in cyrillic.
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This is done in the US and Canada as well. Carrier apps and settings are downloaded for things like "pay my bill", visual voicemail, and Wi-Fi calling.
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and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device
I'm sooooooo glad I won't have to be burdened with downloading my own software anymore! What. A. Chore. It's so much better to have someone else decide for me what to put on my phone! This is the brave new world the prophets foretold!
You mean like every single phone from a major carrier? Or from almost everywhere else?
Yes, you can find a phone without preinstalled crapware, I guess, but it's not easy. You have to really hunt for it.
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and spare consumers from having to download software upon purchasing a new device
I'm sooooooo glad I won't have to be burdened with downloading my own software anymore! What. A. Chore. It's so much better to have someone else decide for me what to put on my phone! This is the brave new world the prophets foretold!
So, how many apps came pre-installed on your shiny new American smartphone?
Wait, what do you mean you can't uninstall certain ones?
Maybe someone in this brave new world will FINALLY realize the hypocrisy here, but I doubt it.
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The issue here is a government forcing people to install a piece of shit software that nobody asked for.
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Who cares about the nationality of an app you idiot.
The issue here is a government forcing people to install a piece of shit software that nobody asked for.
Yup, and my point was addressing that fact. There is no point in calling out Putin or Russia here, because that would imply that other countries behave differently when the reality is they don't.
From a privacy standpoint, America is no different or better than any other country. Citizens are just more ignorant about it.
This stops the google spying... (Score:3)
But adds Russian spying, so not exactly a good trade.
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Why do you believe one precludes the other?
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Russia still needs to go the app way in
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We got PRISM from the NSA and GCHQ. No download needed. Russia still needs to go the app way in :)
My exact thought. In any case, if it has spyware remains to be seen. All of these apps will be decompiled and analyzed by everyone and their dog the day they come out.
On a more serious note, the app which they want to shove everywhere is the actual government e-portal. It is supposed to provide tax, fines, etc payments electronically and decrease the amount of stuff paid cash in hand and the corruption that goes with it. Will it work? Hell knows, let's see it first. IMHO anything to decrease the corruptio
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In the free West the network is the app :)
Some countries have it. E-pay/Easy Pay in Bulgaria. Baltics have it. Scandinavia has some too.
Russian software? (Score:2)
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You obviously don't own a smart-TV.
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Cars run various apps, will Mercedes not be allowed to sell in Russia without some Russian KGB app on it as well?
Who says they don't already?
But seriously, they probably just missed that in the first round of this Legislation. They'll get around to it soon...
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they could just call it a computer.
of course - the question to ask is this: does this require that the computers have to be able to run the said software?
because .. does this make mips and such alt computers illegal to sell? how about a raspberry pi? what if it doesn't come with any software?
How much? (Score:2)
I wonder how much app developers will have to pay and to whom, to have their app(s) included on the list of mandatory apps.
Following the Chinese (Score:1)
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Can you point me to where he mentioned it being a law?
Meanwhile in the US... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Meanwhile in the US... (Score:2)
Mostly due to the fact that most of the companies that make these apps are in the US to begin with. It's kind of hard to avoid, even if you wanted to. This is very far removed from the US government mandating that certain software is installed on your phone or computer, and you're a total moron if you can't see the difference.
Uninstalling (Score:3)
WoaHaHaHa... retailers were not consulted! (Score:1)
How Long? (Score:3)
I wonder how long will it take when a lot of Russians are deleting these apps off their phone for the Kremlin to pass another law to make it illegal to remove these apps? This would go to prove what making these apps mandatory is really for but, I don't think anyone really doubts the real motive behind this law.
In Soviet Russia... (Score:2)
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You cannot remove Facebook app from most phones
Unless, you've bought a facebook phone you very much can.
That's different how? (Score:2)
Though it kinds makes me wonder whether I can buy a Russian phone instead. I mean, if some government has to spy on me, how about one that doesn't directly affect me?
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KGB (Score:2)
Open Source (Score:2)
So does this mean this kind of law would push individuals and/or groups to adopt open source software? People just go out buy the hardware but take it home to install a flavor of Linux that's been battled tested on the hardware?
Android already does this... (Score:2)
Mass Surveillance + Emerging Technology = ... (Score:1)
If the concept of a government entity installing mandatory backdoors on your mobile devices makes you nervous right now... Then you'll be shitting your pants in another 10-15 years.
As technology advances, so will the mass surveillance (and even censorship) capabilities of countries like Russia/China/North Korea. Between the looming encryption crisis (AKA super computers), the rapid progression of facial recognition, evolving big data techniques, and increasingly decentralized WANs (ie- "Great China Firewall