Shahabeddin Khodabakhsh, CEO of Cafe Bazaar, Believes Filtering Has Had No Benefits for Iran’s IT Ecosystem; Urges New Government to Reevaluate Previous Decisions
“Shahabeddin Khodabakhsh, CEO of Cafe Bazaar, Criticizes Google Play Filtering for Its Negative Impact on Iran’s IT Ecosystem”
According to Iran digital economy annotation, Shahabeddin Khodabakhsh, CEO of Cafe Bazaar, has addressed the issue of filtering in a note titled “Google Play Filtering: For Security or Against Security, That Is the Question” on the Virgool platform. He expresses hope that his note reaches and attracts the attention of those who need to address it.
In his note, Khodabakhsh recounts the founding of Cafe Bazaar and discusses the severe international sanctions that had previously targeted Iranian developers. He notes, “As international sanctions became more stringent, major tech companies like Google restricted their services for Iranian users and developers.”
He continues, “The complexity of solving macro issues in Iran and the country’s international relations led to diminishing hopes of resolving these problems fundamentally. The only option left was to turn this environmental threat into an opportunity, leading to the creation of domestic platforms. This allowed Iranian developers to use local infrastructure to provide services to Iranian users.”
Consequences of Filtering on Security
Khodabakhsh also highlights the extensive use of VPNs by ordinary people and the severe consequences of this issue. He notes, “Pre-installed apps on users’ phones, such as Play Store, YouTube, Netflix, etc., which automatically update worldwide, lost their ability to auto-update from Google Play. Iranian users, with obsolete versions of these apps, were exposed to security vulnerabilities and became easy targets for malicious actors. Analysis of user behavior in Cafe Bazaar shows that users are generally reluctant to update apps through app stores, making auto-updates a crucial measure to prevent potential abuses. The scale of this issue affecting tens of millions of Android devices in Iran represents a significant national security risk.”
The filtering of Google Play also disabled “Play Protect,” which was one of the strongest security shields available. This incident dealt a severe blow to user security, as many phishing apps installed from unofficial sources found it easier to exploit users in the absence of Play Protect.
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