presumably os updates (from google) must have the privileges necessary to do exactly this or maybe this is the interface used for OS updates?
Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
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Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#12Apple could do that too, if they felt like it. Edit: Except with iPods.
They haven't had to because they stop this stuff before it happens. 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 t…
>They haven't had to because they stop this stuff before it happens.
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.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
They haven't had to because they stop this stuff before it happens. 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 t…
i'm pretty sure it's only apps installed via the market.
I suspect you may be right. But what is it that makes you sure?
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#14I know with my Black Berry on Verizon my screen is littered with new Apps that I never installed (Bing, NFL,Skype, and more). It is pretty annoying.
It's no the same thing, those apps come pre-bundled when you purchased your blackberry, the Google mechanism is a safeguard for when a malicious app slips through, and it only applies to apps downloaded from the market.
These apps were not pre-bundled with my blackberry.. Bing didn't even exist.. Blackberry users just woke up one morning and apps were added.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#15Both mechanisms operate over a persistent TCP/SSL/XMPP connection that Google maintains between its servers and Android handsets via a service called GTalkService. 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?
Why turn off a safety feature? if you're not-technical enough to install a malicious app that slipped into the market, this mechanism is practically made for you.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#16Both mechanisms operate over a persistent TCP/SSL/XMPP connection that Google maintains between its servers and Android handsets via a service called GTalkService. 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?
Why turn off a safety feature? if you're not-technical enough to install a malicious app that slipped into the market, this mechanism is practically made for you.
I am a massive Google fan. But I know a number of people who are not and prefer not to "trust" them with data.
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.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#17I wonder if this vulnerability has been removed in CyanogenMod. If not, I wonder if it will take hours or days before it is. =)
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why turn off a safety feature? if you're not-technical enough to install a malicious app that slipped into the market, this mechanism is practically made for you.
I am a massive Google fan. But I know a number of people who are not and prefer not to "trust" them with data. 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.
I think it's actually a necessity specially for an open platform, imagine if a malicious app got loose and they couldn't do anything about it. It's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#19So perhaps the next time Chinese hackers penetrate Google, they can brick every Android device on the way out.
Re: Google can kill or install apps on citizen Androids
#20Both mechanisms operate over a persistent TCP/SSL/XMPP connection that Google maintains between its servers and Android handsets via a service called GTalkService. 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?
It's the connection that all your push notifications come down by. GMail push, Google Talk inbound messages, etc. They piggyback any number of things onto it.