This Is What You Get When You Can Install Apps From Anywhere
(Credit: Android)
About 20 percent of the 48,000 apps in the Android marketplace allow a third-party application access to sensitive or private information, according to a report released on Tuesday.
And some of the apps were found to have the ability to do things like make calls and send text messages without the mobile user doing anything. For instance, 5 percent of the apps can place calls to any number and 2 percent can allow an app to send unknown SMS messages to premium numbers that incur expensive charges, security firm SMobile Systems concluded in its Android market threat report.
Meanwhile, dozens of apps were found to have the same type of access to sensitive information as known spyware does, including access to the content of e-mails and text messages, phone call information, and device location, said Dan Hoffman, chief technology officer at SMobile Systems.
This is just the kind of scenario that Apple's App Store is designed to prevent. Android fanbois can get all puffed up in righteous indignation all they want about "control" and "freedom." The unintended consequences from their supposedly superior model are ones I can do without.
This is one of the consequences of Feature Fetishism.
