People are concerned because they know that Donald Trump is an aspiring dictator. He doesn't want to install this app because he thinks it will serve some useful purpose, he wants to install it because he thinks the country and everyone in it is his property.

If he's allowed to get away with this, at some point before he's overthrown, he's going to force you, personally, to install this app. When you object that this is crazy, his remaining true believers will make up some nonsense reason why we shouldn't be worried.

▲

aand16 a day ago | parent [-]

It's a work phone, I don't see the issue.

▲

mindslight a day ago | parent | next [-]

> I don't see the issue.

What is your goal in telling us this? Are you proud of sticking your head in the sand, or something?

▲

vitally3643 a day ago | parent [-]

It's not sticking your head in the sand to state that the entity which owns a device is free to install the software they want. The person operating that device does not own it and thus does not have the right to decide what software it runs.

Ignoring the long-standing norm of company-owned and provided devices using preinstalled software that the user has no control over for some sort of "gubmint bad" sentiment is really juvenile. This is how work-owned devices are and have been for decades.

Whether the white house app itself is good or bad, or the administration is good or bad is an entirely disjoint argument. Businesses which own the device and provide them to employees have the right to manage the software on the device they own. Do you really want to argue that the person who owns a device does not have the right to manage its software? Because I don't think that's the argument you want to make here.

	▲	mindslight a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> It's not sticking your head in the sand to state that the entity which owns a device is free to install the software they want Actually, yes it is when you're hanging your hat on that one simplistic point to the exclusion of all others. That's called ignorance. > company-owned ... businesses ... the person who owns a device These are not company-owned or business-owned devices, rather they are government-owned devices. You are playing extremely fast and loose with the major distinctions between government, companies, businesses, and people. > for some sort of "gubmint bad" sentiment is really juvenile I'd say it's quite juvenile to categorize discussions of Constitutional rights and the autocratization of our government as some strawman of "gubmint bad".
	▲	SpicyLemonZest a day ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		I don't agree with the premise that Donald Trump is the owner of all government employee phones. We, the citizens of the United States, own those phones. Trump is just a guy we've temporarily hired to direct the activities of the government, and his mistaken impression that the US President owns the government is exactly my concern.
	▲	a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

▲

SpicyLemonZest a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Is it a work phone because Trump has a principled belief that only work phones should have to install this app? Or is it a work phone because Trump hasn't yet subverted the required executives to get Apple to agree to roll it out on everyone's phone?

	▲	autoexec a day ago \| parent [-]
		"get them to agree" is one way to put it. If they want this our government can just show up with guns and force it to happen. The government already collects data from corporations (including apple according to snowden's leaks), sometimes taking over parts of a company's offices, installing hardware on the company's network, and filling those rooms with government employees in order to do it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A

▲

foobarchu a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Sure, it's a work phone. And that job is with the US government, famously "of and for the people", meaning that citizens are owners of thar workplace. As an owner, I am not okay with this, and I will make my voice heard

To be clear, it's not having a government controlled app, it's the fact that this app exists to perpetuate the cult of Donald Trump. It's a tool for spreading fascism.