Google play store has removed a coronavirus app released by the Iranian government to detect patients.
According to its description, the app “tries to reach a clinical decision by asking a few medical questions”, but Google has cited worries by “some” who said the application might be intended as a spying tool for the Iranian government – and hence the decision to yank it from the store.
Tech news site ZDNet has quashed the claim, saying it had found the software free of spyware.
“The app is not a malicious Trojan or spyware,” Lukas Stefankohe, a malware researcher with ZDNet, said. Though it asks for permissions, he said, those permissions are nothing beyond what you would grant any other health-based app.
The conclusion, however, has not made a dent in Google’s decision to remove the app. According to public terms of service statements from Google, the answer appears to be the fact that Iranian developer accounts are not allowed on Google Play under unilateral US sanctions on Iran.
And that in itself validates Iranian officials’ contention that the United States’ offer to aid Iran with its coronavirus outbreak was “hypocritical”.
“If we can help the Iranians with this problem, we are certainly willing to do so… All they have to do is ask. We will have great professionals over there,” US President Donald Trump said last week.
