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Kaspersky: Biden administration preparing to prevent Americans from using Russian-made software over national security concern | CNN Politics (edition.cnn.com)

submitted 7 months ago by fne8w2ah to c/technology

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[–] RidcullyTheBrown 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

through other means (e.g. instead of banning potentially harmful apps, they could sue the app makers for actual damages).

but that’s just the point, isn’t it? There are no means of obtaining compensation from an adversarial state or its companies and the damage caused might be irreparable. The discussion is not about countries that US has strong ties with. This is foreign policy. And just like your fundamental US granted rights are not guaranteed outside the US borders, nor should adversaries enjoy the same rights in the US. Since the country in question, Russia, makes no commitment to observing any US laws and since there is no way of coercing it or punishing it when it doesn’t, why should US citizens be exposed to this?

And by the way, I think there’s another piece of info that you’re missing. Software bans are not the same as other bans. Banning Kaspersky, for example, just means that the company cannot officially trade and advertise their products in the US. But there is no way of preventing users from using those products(unfortunately).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

There are no means of obtaining compensation from an adversarial state or its companies

If they do business here, they are subject to our laws. TikTok, for example, does have an entity here, so they would be subject to our laws. I don't know about Kaspersky though.

why should US citizens be exposed to this?

Because they choose to. Restricting that is a restriction on US citizens' freedom of association.

Banning Kaspersky, for example, just means that the company cannot officially trade and advertise their products in the US

It goes further than that, it also restricts companies like Google and Apple from including them in their app stores. And for something like Apple, that effectively means users cannot install the app on their device because Apple does not allow other app stores.

I may reconsider if there were no practical limits on what users can do with their devices. Any restrictions should purely be on the companies offering the service, and it should never be illegal for me to use a given piece of software, even if it's on the government's "do not trade" list or whatever. What I do with that software may be illegal, but merely possessing and using it without violating other laws should never be illegal.

I also don't think it should be illegal for any app store to distribute and process payment for a given piece of software, though perhaps it could be illegal to promote it. Otherwise, that's a restriction on the freedom of the app store as well.