I don’t think it is generally in your interest to fight these things, or really anyone’s interest:
- the app can still be side loaded.
- you want simple, explanable resolutions to these things
- supporting this is a political statement. If you’re not based there, this could be stupid at best and leave you in contempt of court at worst (which is about as bad as it gets in the US at least).
Some things are worth taking a stand for; i’d argue strongly against supporting the app in this case as applying the same logic would have allowed the south to peacefully seceed in the american civil war. Best leave this up to the parent government UNLESS you’re willing to argue for human rights violations or something that would go through international courts. I can’t imagine Google or even the employees would want that.
What would the concrete concern be in this case? Any backdoor would destroy the company brand and be excised immediately in a fork.
I suspect they’ll treat it like a piece of critical infrastructure; their political concerns would be at the gfw level, and I just don’t see the likelihood of weaponized attacks. Databases are usually locked down for egress and any outgoing attempts would be rapidly detected.
- the app can still be side loaded.
- you want simple, explanable resolutions to these things
- supporting this is a political statement. If you’re not based there, this could be stupid at best and leave you in contempt of court at worst (which is about as bad as it gets in the US at least).
Some things are worth taking a stand for; i’d argue strongly against supporting the app in this case as applying the same logic would have allowed the south to peacefully seceed in the american civil war. Best leave this up to the parent government UNLESS you’re willing to argue for human rights violations or something that would go through international courts. I can’t imagine Google or even the employees would want that.