Apple CEO Tim Cook defends removal of police-tracking app used in Hong Kong

Apple CEO Tim Cook defends removal of police-tracking app used in Hong Kong

Apple chief executive Tim Cook on Thursday (Oct 10) defended the iPhone maker's decision to remove from its app store a police-tracking app used by protesters in Hong Kong, according to a copy of a letter to employees seen by Reuters and confirmed by Apple.

In the message on an internal Apple website, Mr Cook said the information in the app, including crowd-sourced locations of police checkpoints and protest hot spots, was on its own "benign".

"It is no secret that technology can be used for good or for ill. This case is no different," he noted.

He wrote that Apple based its decision on "credible information" from both Hong Kong police and Apple users in Hong Kong that the app was used "maliciously to target individual officers for violence and to victimise individuals and property where no police are present".

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"This use put the app in violation of Hong Kong law," he said. "Similarly, widespread abuse clearly violates our App Store guidelines barring personal harm."

Apple made the decision a day after a Chinese state newspaper wrote a commentary criticising the company for approving the app.

"National and international debates will outlive us all, and, while important, they do not govern the facts," Mr Cook wrote in his letter.

"In this case, we thoroughly reviewed them, and we believe this decision best protects our users."

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