“A Brazilian judge on Tuesday ordered Apple and Google to not only remove anonymous social networking app Secret from their app stores, but also remotely wipe the software from devices in the country,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“Judge Paulo Cesar de Carvalho of the Fifth Civil Court of Victoria names Apple, Google and Microsoft in the order, calling for the removal and deletion of Secret and the Windows Phone analogue Cryptic within ten days, reports local publication Link,” Campbell reports. “After the probationary period, all three companies face a fine of 20,000 Brazilian Real (about US$8,860) for each day the apps remain in service.”
“Judge de Carvalho’s decision is in response to a proposed action from public prosecutor Marcelo Zenkner, who called for a ban on the apps, saying Brazil’s constitution prohibits anonymous freedom of expression,” Campbell reports. “The meaning of the constitution’s Article 5 is debated in Brazil, though some believe anonymity should not be allowed when it infringes on fundamental human rights, the publication says.”
Campbell reports, “The ruling shines a light on Apple’s so-called app ‘blacklist,’ which can remotely disable an installed app by revoking its certificate.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, if a visitor to Brazil from another country arrives, does his or her iPhone delete the Secret app once they hit the tarmac? What if you’re just flying over Brazil, but in the country’s airspace? How will Microsoft ever be able to track down all three Windows Phones in Brazil? Before issuing his order, did this judge really think things all the way through? The whole idea seems rather goofy, not to mention quite invasive.
Let’s just hope the judge doesn’t put Apple on Double Secret Probation.
Or worse yet – draw a line in the sand!
Please this guy is way out his area
Totally agree. If the judge does not want an app on a brazilian phone, collect all the phones in brazil and delete the app, or break the phones….
Apple (more than likely) does not have the technology to only stop apps while in Brazil? How do you know which phones to kill? Killing the certificate would kill that app all around the world.
It would be better for the judge to order Secret to release the names of the bullies on their service.
I guess they’ll just wipe it from phones linked to Brazilian iTunes accounts. That ought to be enough to satisfy the judge.
great publicity! Bravo Brazil!
I’ve never heard of a app named “Secret.” I guess someone is doing their job very well. It’s Brazil, they can do what they want.
Secret Apps by Sensible Code
Fsck Judge Carvalho! What an asshole! There are dozens if them, and I didn’t even know they existed! Now I do and I downloaded 4 of them. Next I’m going to Brazil with all of them!
Sober up first.
I hope Apple can resist this, as I believe that once a consumer purchases a device it belongs to them, as does anything they choose to install on it. I wouldn’t jailbreak my iPhone, but I think you should be able to if you want. So I hope Apple leaves the apps right where they are.
That being said, I think the Secret app IS a negative thing, if you can’t look your friends in the eye to say something to them, maybe you shouldn’t say it at all, or you shouldn’t be there friend, or maybe they shouldn’t be your friend.
I see no reason for Apple to resist. In fact, I see no reason for ANY corporation to ignore and subvert the law of any sovereign nation. If they want to do business there, they need to follow the laws. It is in brazil’s constitution, a judge has ruled, move on. If Brazilians do not like it, it is up to THEM to change it, not some bully corporation.
We can offer all the opinion we want, it doesn’t change anything. I do find it ironic that MDN a site run by rabid right-wingers, a party which purports to follow and adhere to constitutional principals is belittling and mocking another nation for trying to adhere to their constitution.
Do you suppose you might be confusing civil law with constitutional law?
Judge Paulo Cesar de Carvalho of the Fifth Civil Court of Victoria
And MDN isn’t belittling Brazil nor mocking them! The take speaks only about the judge’s thought process and the enforceability of the order.
“…remotely wipe the app from their devices”?
I wasn’t aware Apple had the power to do that from my iPhone. Am I missing something or is the judge in La-la land?
Well, yes. The mechanism in place has iOS run the app’s signature certificate past Apple’s servers when practical. This ensures that the app hasn’t been altered on the device, and that the app is still valid back at headquarters. There’s a timing function, too, which prevents you from forever running your device without network connectivity to keep the app “alive” — but I don’t know what that value is.
I don’t think it erases the app, but on next launch I think you get a message from iOS and are returned to the home screen. I’ve not actually seen it happen myself, though.
Obviously, with the constant human propensity to seek and destroy anyone who disagrees with someone else’s perception of ‘truth’, anonymity is a required option in public discourse.
However, anonymous hate, trolling, bullying, propaganda, ad nauseam, is never acceptable. It’s just the psychopathy and cowardice. I personally would have no problem banning such garbage. BUT! How one determines what is coward psychopathy is a huge problem. A lot of us know what it is like to have factual statements flamed as ‘trolling’ or ‘hate’ simply because someone finds those facts to be inconvenient or antithetical to their favorite propaganda, and so forth.
I.E. People are a problem.
… “remotely wipe” apps from your device. That is, they can (at LEAST) render it in-operable. Revoke its certificate so it will no longer run.
@Rob … the fact there are “dozens” of them and that people want this functionality does not make it “A Good Thing”. I can think of three “valid” uses: getting an innocent message past the NSA, getting a treacherous message past the NSA, and bullying someone.
@MDN … Apple could set up the revocation any of several ways. The hardest would be some sort of auto-delete that would cancel the apps certificates while in Brazil’s territory. I’m wondering just how Apple will know which copies are in the illegal zone – getting all the illegal copies but not catching legal copies in their net.
What happens if the iPhone cannot selectively deactivate an app? What happens if killing the app in Brazil, kills it for the world? How do you tell where a phone is and what apps to allow to run? If you leave the country, can it then run?
I say a judge getting way ahead of them self, trying to rule the world from their tiny chair in the back woods.
Just a thought.
“How will Microsoft ever be able to track down all three Windows Phones in Brazil?”
Hahahahaha! That was the best part!
The real issue here is jurisdiction. Just because one judge does not like something and orders IT to be done, does not man everyone in the country is affected.
Also, there is no specific method that the judge specified, just “DO IT”.
What happens when one of these overbearing judges requires all iPhones to grant personal wishes!! Or spy on their owners?? or some other thing the phone was not meant to do.
Where do we draw the line? Obviously common sense is totally not involved here.
I think Apple can tell when the phone is in Brazil, or right at the border (within GPS and WiFi exactitude). Telling when the phone is within the jurisdiction of the 5th Civil Court of Victoria is going to be much tougher!
Your other questions are valid, and I sure hope Brazil has an appeals process above the 5th Civil Court. (Thank goodness the appeal couldn’t be referred to Judge Koh!)