Last week Apple and Google came under heavy criticism for facilitating gender discrimination by allowing their platform to host a controversial app that gave Saudi men power to spy on their women.
According to a Saudi Arabian human rights defender, the Absher app was illegally used by Saudi Arabian men to control and track the movements of their wife(s) and daughters.
When activated the app was reportedly able to send real-time sms notification to men anytime their women tried to cross borders or airport checks.
Following international outcry, a 14 member team of the US Congress were on February 21 forced to write a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook, demanding that the app be immediately removed playstore and appstore.
The 14 member team gave the two tech firms up to 28th February to comply. READ MORE : Apple and Google criticised for hosting Saudi app that tracks women. However, Insider now reports that Google has declined to remove the controversial app from its play store.
In a statement sent by Google to the office of Representative Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, the company stated that the Absher app did not violate any of its rules and regulations, and for that it did not see any valid reason to ban it from google playstore.
“Google reviewed the app — called Absher — and concluded that it does not violate any agreements, and can therefore remain on the Google Play store.”
Apple is yet to comment or take any action against the alleged spying app.