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Apple in trouble over 'Jew-spotting' app
Source: Agencies |
September 15, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
A FRENCH anti-racism group has threatened to sue Apple over an iPhone application called "A Jew or Not a Jew?" that allows users to consult a database of celebrities and public figures to determine whether they are Jewish or not.
SOS Racisme said the application, which is sold for 0.79 euros (US$1.07) on the Apple Store France, violates France's strict laws banning the compiling of people's personal details without their consent.
Under the French penal code, stocking personal details, including race, sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation, is punishable by five-year prison sentences and fines of up to 300,000 euros.
Such laws were enacted in the decades following the Holocaust, which saw some 76,000 Jews deported from Nazi-occupied France to concentration camps. Fewer than 3,000 survived.
In a statement, SOS Racisme called on Apple to remove the app from its online store and be more vigilant about the applications it sells.
Apple France and its European headquarters did not immediately return calls for comment.
The head of leading French Jewish group CRIF, Richard Prasquier, echoed SOS Racisme's call for the immediate removal of the application.
"It's not only shocking but also illegal," Prasquier said. "In France, we make a very important distinction that doesn't exist in the same way in the United States between the public and private spheres."
Johann Levy, a 35-year-old Franco-British engineer of Jewish origin, developed the application, according to Le Parisien newspaper. In an interview published yesterday Levy said the app was "recreational."
"For me, there's nothing pejorative about saying that someone is Jewish or not," he said. "On the contrary, it's about being proud."
SOS Racisme said the application, which is sold for 0.79 euros (US$1.07) on the Apple Store France, violates France's strict laws banning the compiling of people's personal details without their consent.
Under the French penal code, stocking personal details, including race, sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation, is punishable by five-year prison sentences and fines of up to 300,000 euros.
Such laws were enacted in the decades following the Holocaust, which saw some 76,000 Jews deported from Nazi-occupied France to concentration camps. Fewer than 3,000 survived.
In a statement, SOS Racisme called on Apple to remove the app from its online store and be more vigilant about the applications it sells.
Apple France and its European headquarters did not immediately return calls for comment.
The head of leading French Jewish group CRIF, Richard Prasquier, echoed SOS Racisme's call for the immediate removal of the application.
"It's not only shocking but also illegal," Prasquier said. "In France, we make a very important distinction that doesn't exist in the same way in the United States between the public and private spheres."
Johann Levy, a 35-year-old Franco-British engineer of Jewish origin, developed the application, according to Le Parisien newspaper. In an interview published yesterday Levy said the app was "recreational."
"For me, there's nothing pejorative about saying that someone is Jewish or not," he said. "On the contrary, it's about being proud."
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