Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
theregister.co.uk
theregister.co.uk
No conspiracy or anything to be alarmed with if you ask me
What? That's rather naughty if it is true (the article doesn't give any more details than this).
Does this mean that for non-technical users you cannot turn off a Google connection?
Most have android phones because they feel similarly about Apple. This would horrify them.
Admittedly that's an overreaction. But I can't help feeling that a persistent connection with little option/choice is not the sort of thing a free platform should have.
So it is something of a false security.
Besides; to fit with the whole "ethos" of the Android system it should be an optional feature (App Kill and App install).
Palm OS phones like the Treo never had any remote kill switch or other such nonsense. Anyone could develop for it and post their apps wherever they pleased. There was no gatekeeper to be be paid or placated, nor were there any super-scary viruses that brought down the network.
If this kind of Orwellian control is "a necessity specially for an open platform", why not allow Linux vendors the same power over your servers and workstations? After all, "imagine if a malicious app got loose and they couldn't do anything about it".
Seriously: it is up to the users to exercise good judgement and safe computing practices. If an infected phone is causing problems, let the carrier disconnect it (just like ISPs disconnect problem accounts). Turning power over to someone else is just another example of the nanny mentality. Not to mention that the back doors themselves may be exploited by malware.
All you need is a routine in the radio firmware that recognizes a specific signal and either turns off the radio or flood the towers with traffic. Better yet - request instructions from a server and deploy resources according to the plans they get - communications meltdown, massive DDoS on critical services, you name it.
And since it's in the radio controller, it's pretty much hidden from view. You can root your Android phone or jailbreak your iPhone all you want, the radio controller is pretty much a separate computer.
On the other hand, subverting Google's own official 'kill-switch' at a later date could be the work of a lone vandal or disgruntled employee, and reflects more negatively on Google than manufacturers.
(BTW, I have nothing against Chinese hackers specifically; they're just a usefully vivid example from recent events. The same observation goes for any person or entity that gets momentary control of the official platform-wide revocation mechanism. Its mere existence, for either the iOS or Android ecosystems, makes it a super-juicy target for evildoers.)
Only if they are discovered.
You can hide the firmware in ways not even the "official" firmware can access and only a mask inspection would show you have a small amount of ROM where none was supposed to be (or twice as much as you state in the chip specs). If I were paranoid, I would be seriously investigating whether such a plan could be actually conducted - how many processes would have to be compromised and how many people would have to be involved to introduce a feature like this in, say, a popular cellphone radio controller. Can we vouch for the integrity of the hardware/software stack in the towers themselves for not having any backdoor/sleeper code or logic?
Again, I don't imagine this as being the work of gangs, but of governments. It's like having your communications blocked as soon as tanks cross the borders and planes start dropping bombs. It's a very nasty scenario.
Edit: Except with iPods.
The cost of keeping the Apple App Store clean of malicious software is placed on the developers who are forced to wait for approval. The cost of keeping the Android App Market clean is placed on the users who will have to deal with the malicious apps that haven't been pulled yet.
Freedom isn't free it seems.
Does anyone know if Google can pull apps that haven't been installed by means of the Market?
How does Apple stop malicious software? No one has ever claimed that.
Apple's review process doesn't validate that the software does what it claims it does, beyond the superficial.
As far as I can tell, the iPhone has only been hit by malware when jailbreaking is involved. Maybe I'm missing it, but considering that minor infections in the Android market have made headlines, I imagine I would fine something for Apple too.
P.S. I'm hardly pro Apple, I have a Droid. I'm just saying that the probably do check for this sort of thing, because it's impossible in my mind for some one not to have tried to submit malware to the App store.
I have never heard of an Android application that breaks out of the sandbox. When people talk about "malicious" applications, these are apps that don't actually do what they promise to do, and because of an overly generous user (who okayed excessive permissions) they exploit trust.
This is similar to a web site saying "Hey, add me to your trust zone" (in Internet Explorer) "and I'll be extra awesome", and then exploiting that access.
Another poster mentioned that location has a special confirmation security grant, which is interesting to learn, however for other accesses there is no guarantee that the app is doing everything in your best interest.