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Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#51

Post by Yetanfou »

qq66 wrote: post #23
clef wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I Just use the factory apps and have nothing else installed, this way no one mines anything out of me.

Except Google mining all your data (if you use Android)

That would be strange, given that the only Google-produced code on my Android-running phone comes from AOSP and has had plenty of eyes (and network sniffers, and firewalls, etc) on it to weed out any such mining.

If you run Google applications (on Android or on iOS or elsewhere) you send data to Google. If you don't want to send data to Google, don't run Google applications. The same goes for Apple applications which phone home to Apple, Microsoft applications to Microsoft, etc.

Android works fine without Google applications ('gapps'). It does not need the Google Services Framework to survive. You don't need the (horribly named) 'play store'. Nor Gmail, Google Maps, Google+, etc. This is one of the big differences between Android and the other bigger players in this field - you have a choice.

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#53

Post by MichaelGG »

scott_karana wrote: post #9
DigitalSea wrote: post #5

I think what surprises me most about this situation is that even though the supposed offending apps, Songs in particular has been downloaded and installed between one and five million times but only possibly generated the author a few thousand Dogecoin. Seems like a big risk for a few dollars, wouldn't advertisements be more profitable option?

Doesn't the app have ads in addition to the mining aspect? As someone pointed out in a similar past thread, 1 coin for $0 of energy is still an infinite profit.

That's putting a value of zero on being fined (or worse). I don't think the risk is non-zero. Just takes one zealous AG to file a case against you (even if you're out of jurisdiction, there's a non-zero chance you might end up passing through at some point).

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#54

Post by MichaelGG »

kevingadd wrote: post #40
lazylizard wrote: post #7

for all that trouble why don't they(makers of these apps) just buy a pc with a pair of reasonable ati cards?

For a F2P app, the cost of doing this is basically 0 and the revenue will continue to increase as long as the app keeps getting popular. Doesn't matter if the revenue is small, it's still more revenue from your F2P app.

Certainly some jurisdiction might decide this isn't "fair" and attempt prosecution? May be worth a headline somplace near election time.

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#55

Post by rplnt »

doesnt_know wrote: post #14
devindotcom wrote: post #4

This is pretty hilarious. Given how small the load can be to automatically contribute hashes to a pool for ___coin, I expect more of these in the future, but smarter. Runs for 5 seconds per minute on ten million devices for six months? That's no joke with some of the hardware out there. It's this close to a victimless crime (that is, unless the victim gets their CPU/GPU fried, as has happened with these nets before).…

Electricity and bandwidth are both resources that most people have to pay for, I would consider this theft and not a "victimless crime". The severity of financial impact on the victim is irrelevant. If I steal tiny amounts of money ~0.01c from large amounts of people and accrued significant wealth from it, is it fine? Is it a "victimless crime" because the amount is so small?

A theft? Do you consider all installed apps to be stealing then?

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#56

Post by Cthulhu_ »

devindotcom wrote: post #4

This is pretty hilarious. Given how small the load can be to automatically contribute hashes to a pool for ___coin, I expect more of these in the future, but smarter. Runs for 5 seconds per minute on ten million devices for six months? That's no joke with some of the hardware out there. It's this close to a victimless crime (that is, unless the victim gets their CPU/GPU fried, as has happened with these nets before).…

I'm inclined to believe that things like this could just be an alternative to ads. Ads take up CPU, battery life and bandwidth too (although a relatively small amount compared to coin mining). Alternative income source, I guess.

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#57

Post by Tloewald »

rplnt wrote: post #55
doesnt_know wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electricity and bandwidth are both resources that most people have to pay for, I would consider this theft and not a "victimless crime". The severity of financial impact on the victim is irrelevant. If I steal tiny amounts of money ~0.01c from large amounts of people and accrued significant wealth from it, is it fine? Is it a "victimless crime" because the amount is so small?

A theft? Do you consider all installed apps to be stealing then?

Seriously? An app that does what it says isn't stealing from you. An app that runs up your electricity bill and damages your phone without disclosing its behavior is clearly a different matter.

Re: Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

#60

Post by jlcummings »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #56
devindotcom wrote: post #4

This is pretty hilarious. Given how small the load can be to automatically contribute hashes to a pool for ___coin, I expect more of these in the future, but smarter. Runs for 5 seconds per minute on ten million devices for six months? That's no joke with some of the hardware out there. It's this close to a victimless crime (that is, unless the victim gets their CPU/GPU fried, as has happened with these nets before).…

I'm inclined to believe that things like this could just be an alternative to ads. Ads take up CPU, battery life and bandwidth too (although a relatively small amount compared to coin mining). Alternative income source, I guess.

Taking that further, I would much rather be used as a fractional miner than provide unhindered, across the board access to personal transportable data and per device usage from the device.

Providing a user with means to throttle or govern the mining seems appropriate even if not explicit. If I am trying to use my device put the virtual mining crew on break and dont check back for at least 20 minutes.

Secondly, exclusive mining rights. Only one app per device, but each developer can ask for a share of the haul. Having more mining apps competing for time will work in no ones favor. As the device owner I should inherently be entitled to a significant share.

An auditible mining client would be valuable. I could certainly see this as something that could eventually fit neatly somewhere between an optional and encouraged part of an AOSP deployment.

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