Google refuses to ban controversial Saudi women-tracking app Absher

Google has rejected calls to remove a Saudi government app that allows males to restrict the freedom of their female dependents, saying it does not violate its terms of service.

The app, called Absher ("Good Tidings" in Arabic), has been in operation by the kingdom's interior ministry for a few years.

It allows users to manage passports, vehicle registration and parking tickets but also has more sinister features that track women's movement and restrict their ability to leave the country.

The free app is available on Android and Apple smartphones.

Fourteen members of the US Congress last month wrote to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook demanding that the app be removed.

Google told the office of Democratic Representative Jackie Speier, one of the Congresswomen, it will not remove the controversial service.

Speier, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib, together with 11 others, had called Apple and Google "accomplices in the oppression of Saudi Arabian women."

Apple have yet to announce their ruling.

"Facilitating the detention of women seeking asylum and fleeing abuse and control unequivocally causes harm. I will be following up on this issue with my colleagues," Speier told Business Insider.

"The responses received so far from Apple and Google are deeply unsatisfactory."

The European Parliament has expressed concern over the Saudi app and called on the kingdom to end its male guardianship system, which it said reduces women to "second-class citizens".

Amnesty International called on Apple and Google to "mitigate the harm that the app has on women."

The application has garnered media attention following the high-profile case of Rahaf Mohammed, a Saudi teenager who fled the kingdom, finding asylum in Canada after a weeks' long limbo in Thailand.

Women face systematic discrimination and are left exposed to domestic violence under the male guardianship system and have few places to turn when they face abuse, leading some women to undertake dangerous escape attempts to flee the country.