Are you the only one who feels this is the case or your entire team?

Probably illegal in EU due to GDPR. Change companies, this one will go under when the CEO is in jail.

Is there a data protection or consumer protection agency or equivalent in your country? Could you make an anonymous complaint to them? Also, I hope your username isn't your real name.

We have a government agency that pores into the privacy policies of products and services of all platforms, but sadly not everyone goes through them.

@SZCZERZOKŁY yeah I get the feeling that they're lying to me

It should be taken into account that on Android's next version (Android Q) apps won't be allowed to record video or audio when not in the foreground, as can be seen here: theverge.com/2018/3/7/17091104/…

I'm curious what the current purpose of the app is if "user safety and giving cops leverage" can fall into scope.

So you work for Grab?

I wonder if you could contact google secretly and tell them what your company is trying to do and ask them what they would suggest your plan of action be. Do you have a legal team you can ask for input from? If not, I think I would just explain again in clear terms this is violating X laws and you will report the CEO to the local authorities and the various app stores if he continues down this path. Be prepared to get fired soon after though...

Most countries' constitutions restrict the actions of their governments, not those of their citizens. If that is the case where you live, nothing your company does could be unconstitutional. Illegal is a different matter and, again, some things that are illegal without consent become legal with it. What your company is trying to do may be unethical, but it may, in fact, be legal.

@Blrfl what my CEO’s trying to make us do is not only illegal, it is also unconstitutional in our country.

@Matthieu Brucher You mean, the company will raise some eyebrows when the CEO receives a stern look after the company has been billed a fine they paid from the petty cash.

This has striking similarities to Volkswagon's emission scandal. Yes, the CEO lost his job, but throughout, the company deflected and scapegoated the engineers who were, "just following orders". That's not really a good position to be in.

@MatthieuBrucher It's only a violation of the GDPR if the user has not agreed to it on beforehand. GDPR does, however, make you obligated to let the customer a) see all records you have about him that you own, including this, within a month and b) have the right for all of your data to be erased within a month. Even if you can get permission from your customers, it's a hell on earth to maintain data you don't need.

The legal situation is almost certainly not so clear cut as what the "morally outraged" here would like it to be. There are countless examples where it is perfectly legal to buy and sell things which cannot legally be used for the purpose for which they were designed. Some types of knife are a trivial example.

From what you're describing, there is a strong probability that your app may violate the policy guidelines for listing in the Play Store. Does your boss have an alternative distribution plan to get your apps to users if the Play Store is not an option?

@J... there is and I can think of a number of ways to get the APK and the IPA through. But I am absolutely not going to tell him that.

@GustavoMP It seems that the link you posted mentions Android P (the current version) and the article was written in 2018 (last year).

@March Ho yes, I made a little disclaimer at the end of the answer.

May be a bit risky writing all this online with your real name..?

Go work somewhere else. If they're willing to do this to users, who knows what they're willing to do to you?

@mathreadler this isn’t my real name. I just made it look like so ;)

Is this problematic feature at all related to the purpose of your app? Google's app store is getting fairly good at catching and blocking apps that require wildly inappropriate permissions, like a calculator app that needs access to your address book.

"I want to know counter-arguments from an investor's standpoint so that the feature would be scrapped in its entirety." - you're looking for the means with which to commit sabotage? The most charitable thing you can do for all parties involved is quit.

You should make your CEO the official beta tester -- "it would give cops leverage by way of investigation in case something in the videos can be used as evidence"

Have you tried calling the cops on your CEO?

You have a professional responsibility and an ethical responsibility to ensure this is addressed. There are some good answers at security.stackexchange.com/questions/15076/… . (I am 5 points short of the reputation needed to provide an answer myself - based on mine+those.)

Dear CEO: The entire development team believes implementing this feature would be illegal and unconstitutional and is very uncomfortable with the feature request. The likelihood that none of them, nor Google, nor any antivirus vendors will blow the whistle on this is rather low. If the whistle is blown, criminal penalties are likely, and user trust will be difficult to rebuild. The logical move for anyone involved, including anyone on the development team, who thinks about game theory and likely outcomes, is to blow the whistle, rather than risk having the whistle blown on them.