Offender locator app removed from the Store by Apple

Offender Locator, a controversial, high-profile application that allowed users to find registered sex offenders, was removed from the App Store this week.

Offender Locator

The software from ThinAir Wireless was priced at $0.99, and had resided among the top 10 selling applications in Apple’s App Store for weeks. But according to CNet, the application was banished from the App Store for legal reasons.

While those reasons have not yet been made clear, some have speculated that it may be illegal in the state of California for anyone to profit from the sale of publicly-available criminal information. But according to a ThinAir Wireless employee, Sex Offenders Search, a competing application for $1.99, remained on sale even after Offender Locator had been pulled from the App Store.

The software allowed users to see nearby registered offenders based on the phone’s current location or by manually entering an address. The program then pulled up a map with pinpoints for each nearby offender. The locations were each selectable, giving users access to the person’s picture, a physical description, and information on what crime they were convicted of.

Posted on Aug 8th, 2009 by Maggie Mills in iPhone Apps | 2 Comments

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2 Comments to “Offender locator app removed from the Store by Apple”

  1. on 09 Aug 2009 at 4:33 am1mouse01

    it looks like it’s still up on the app store for $.99. it is currently ranked at 15.

  2. on 10 Aug 2009 at 3:14 am2Levi- The perfectionist

    While I do think its strange that one app was pulled while another stayed, I still believe this was for the best.

    I find the idea of this kind of app a little paranoid?
    Not that I don’t think sexual abuse as a terrible thing, but I think this just goes a little too far showing the addresses of sex offenders.

    Its sort of bringing justice a little too much into our own hands? It could spark crazy groups of people (think westborough church) to go on sex offender door knocking campaigns which could turn potentially very violent.

    I use the above as a very loose example… I just think that sort of thing is best left to the law (police) not put into the hands of idiots.

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