It feels like how a minor problem (in the sense that the app is poorly planned) is escalated into a device/os and then a country + international problem
If your goal were to fix this issue for other people on your situation, you would push for your insurance to disable geolocation instead of complaining about the existence of geolocation which is opening a can of worms you have no bearing in and don't understand.
Fix your garden before you fix the world.
But this is far from the biggest problem in this story.
e.g, if it’s important to be able to access the information available through the app, why is it locked?
Why isn’t that important information available on a regular web site?
Why do you need to install an app before getting emergency medical attention, anyway?
While sideloading might let you work around a broken bureaucracy from time-to-time, that’s not a very effective way to improve the system.
Sympathy will be limited when that country is also a repressive dictatorship, if you have gone there of your own accord.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/united-arab-emirates-uae-free-spe...
But if you chose to move to a horrible, evil country, then you cannot blame its awfulness on your phone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_United_Ara...
This apparent need to push the discussion away from the issue being presented and instead engage in some moral grandstanding on an irrelevant point comes across as suspect.
If you were presented with an example of a walled garden causing distress to someone in a nice, white Western country, you'd presumably rush forward with your sympathy, would you?
You seem unable to parse my statement "Sympathy will be limited when that country is also a repressive dictatorship, if you have gone there of your own accord."
You seem unable to comprehend that the OP complained about some policy choices of his phone's provider, when what actually "can kill" here is the health service of the evil, oppressive country he lives in.
This apparent need to push the discussion away from the issue being presented and instead try and make it a race issue comes across as you being a demented defender of a disgusting regime.
Suspect indeed.
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2024/country-chapters/unite...
I didn't "make it a race issue".
I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that you employ such a puerile tactic, as it's exactly what you're doing with the original article - picking out an irrelevant detail and focusing on that and then acting like you've "won" some sort of argument, which in fact is only taking place in your head.
My very simple point - which you've done nothing to address - is that the article was about the difficulties and stresses which can arise when digital services are arbitrarily blocked off from one region to the next, and that you're simply sidestepping that to make an irrelevant point.
Neither the article, nor I in my comments, make any point about the human rights situation in the UAE. It simply is not germane.
From my browsing of the comments here, it seems like no other reader of the article has gone off on a tangent in any way similar to yours - do you think there's any chance that your reading comprehension skills are at fault here, or is it just that no one is on your level?
Your point here and below have the whiff of committed insincerity off them, but nonetheless, if we take you at face value, a quick search reveals this astonishing quote from https://u.ae/en/information-and-services/justice-safety-and-...
> "UAE's hospitals can handle any medical emergency. During medical emergencies, a hospital will accept you for initial treatment and may transfer you to a hospital better equipped to deal with your problem.
The UAE provides standard medical care and visitors can easily obtain medical treatment from either private or government hospitals. In case of emergency, treatment to stabilise the case is free. Other treatment must be paid for by cash, credit card or insurance."
The UAE is a dictatorship that badly mistreats migrant workers. Don't go there.
https://hrf.org/latest/infiltrating-america-new-hrf-report-o...
No one is "going there" except you, so take your own advice, and don't.
On the other hand, I think my personal values make me ideologically opposed to locked-down hardware/software that you don't get full control over (with associated freedom/repairability implications) and Apple products are some of the most restricted in that regard.
The current compromise? I'll buy all Apple devices for convenience... once I have enough money to not care.
• The insurance company decided their information can only be accessed via an app, not Apple.
• The insurance company decided their app should be region locked to UAE, not Apple.
It seems like HN bait to turn this into an opportunity for an anti-Apple rant. Anyone who from the US travels abroad frequently will discover quickly that their banking apps are region locked, via the network, and you often have to use a VPN that looks like you are back home in the US to be able to access their apps or services. Apple has nothing to do with any of this. It doesn't matter if you're on iPhone or Android, it's network level.
It's fine to be against this practice, but turning it into something directed to a single company as if it is their responsibility entirely is just... well, at worst, it doesn't seem honest, at best, it seems naive or ignorant.
I hate that it's functionally become the only way to sell things online.
The web solves nearly all of the problems Apple and Google have created with their ecosystems.