Google is taking what keeps them alive

Millions of people living under authoritarian governments, military occupation and drug cartels depend on apps built by people who can't send Google a passport. This month Google starts blocking them with their developer verification program. There are apps that keep people alive every day, installed in different ways. Every one of them now needs Google's permission, not just the ones on the Play Store. I couldn't find anyone who looked at the humanitarian impact of this in real people and real numbers, so I'm going to take you on a world tour to show them to you. Entire populations have no government willing to give them ID. Billions have no bank card Google will accept. Plenty have both and still won't connect their identity to their app, because they know what their government will do to them. Google says this is for user safety, to stop fraud. I'll show you that checking developer ID doesn't work, and Google knows it. We'll start with Nico Mexis, the type of person you might think…