Comment by btown
4 months ago
Something I wonder is that, as mandated cryptographic checks for even sideloaded apps roll out to the Android ecosystem [0][1], is the provision of the capacity to install (or even use) applications in violation of sanctions?
Is Google required to essentially brick the phone of any sanctioned user using any of the international vendors here [2]? Certainly I would say the answer is at the very least "maybe," especially with how export restrictions have historically treated cryptography of all kinds.
It's really important to keep this in mind - it's not just about your ability to install unapproved apps, it's about basic levels of access to one's contacts, photographed memories, and fundamental ability to communicate. And this can be applied to anyone the increasingly-authoritarian U.S. government considers not even a threat, but politically expedient to paint as one.
US employees may be required to, but EU employees are forbidden from doing so.
You can't expect not to be arrested if you start actually fiddling with people's computers, even indirectly like that.