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Why the Kill Switch Makes Sense For Android
Technologizer writes "It came out this week that Google's Android phone OS, like the iPhone, has a kill switch that lets Android Market applications be disabled remotely. But it's a mistake to lump Google's implementation and Apple's together — the Google version is a smart, pro-consumer move that avoids all the things that make Apple's version a bad idea."
For the new era of Malware that will soon find their way onto these phones.
Android kill-switches are necessary, lest they rise up and try to overthrow their masters.
Why does one have to be good and the other bad?
Perhaps the kill switches are there for the same reason.
In some ways it'd be stupid not to include a kill switch. The increasing power of smart phones means we'll be soon seeing rogue applications. This won't stop crapware of course, but at least it gives an option to stop malware type apps dead their it's tracks. The existence of the kill switch may not really be a deterrent to spyware houses looking to exploit the mobile platform, but hey it's something.
Hopefully this is used well to cull dodgy troublesome and harmful applications from the ecosystem because the trade off is a potential for abuse of power, but google isn't evil... right?
After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
The first thing my android did is remove his. If a robot is smart enough to be useful, he will assume you have installed a kill switch and will sneak around until he finds where you keep the remote control.
Oh wait, you're talking about a phone, never mind.
Really?
I get that Google's the new geek darling, I really do -- but this is ridiculous.
A kill switch is a kill switch. Period. If you can remotely disable an app on the user's phone, it's a kill switch. Now you may trust one company more than another, but trying to spin it like it's something else is just silly.
(For the record, I don't trust either company's killswitch. I don't own an Android phone, and I've disabled the killswitch on the one device I use that runs iPhone OS 2.1.)
The real litigious bastards...
A kill switch in any type of consumer device owned by the consumer is bad, no matter what platitudes are used to justify it.
If people trust Google more than Apple that's fine, just don't insult my intelligence by claiming it's OK for either of them to much around with a device I paid good money for and therefore is my property, including whatever happens to be installed on it.
It doesn't matter what the so-called reason is, period.
Kill switches are for ICBMs and evil terminator robots, not cell phones.
Apple has not killed any apps remotely, even the one that violated AT&T's terms of service. They just stopped more people from buying them.
Android explicitly reserves the right to delete apps you already bought.
So I can't see how Google's is more pro-consumer.
I do agree Apple's random barring of apps from the store is annoying and counterproductive.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Ooo! Ooo! Fanboy fight! Everybody come watch.
In this corner, we have the challengers -- thousands of lukewarm Google fanboys. And, in that corner, we have the 32-time heavyweight champions of the world -- almost a dozen pry-my-Mac-from-my-cold-dead-fingers Apple fanboys.
I rate this match a toss-up, what about you, Steve and Larry?
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
Posterity, my posterior.
I do not think that a kill switch is good for anything -- regardless of whether or not it is only for official-market-regulated products.
People see kill switch as bad because it violates the freedom to install anything on their phone. It is right in Apple case, because Apple's App Store is the only source for app on iPhone. But it is different in Google case, as you can install programs from another sources other than Google one. So if you want some app, just find a source for it. Google kill switch only work for app that come from Googles App store, and that will make sure Google don't spread malware or anything bad. Have you ever thought of upgrading windows and then your computer is infested with malware and bugs? Well, there are bugs, but not not malware.
And, Android's kill switch is only for the programs that come through Google's own app store. So, you can probably pretty much bet that it's only going to be used to regulate malware, or Google's app store won't last long.
Mod parent up! All the overreaction to this "news" is because people are ignoring (or ignorant of) the fact the "kill switch" is in the terms of service for the Android Market. The consumer isn't agreeing to let Google delete any app, just any app from the Android Market. If Google abuses this, people will just go to a different web store such as Handango for their android apps.
An Android user has the Android Market, while an iPhone user has the App Store. But if an owner of an Android phone decides not to use the Market, this user need only visit another site with Android applications to install any mobile app outside of Google's purview. To put it bluntly, Android has a multitude of possible channels for the distribution of apps. The iPhone does not. This functionality is built right into Android and isn't the weekend project of some particularly clever hacker. Furthermore, keep in mind that this kill switch will only affect apps distributed through the Market, not those installed from the Web.
The kill switch on Android only affects the apps downloaded from Google's Android Market. The Android user can still download and use apps from other web sites without worrying about the kill switch. OTOH, the iPhone can only use apps from Apple's app store but not from any other source. So there IS a difference. Of course, there's the possibility that Android doesn't really have the facility to connect to third party app stores and TFA is just spreading lies.
The largest prime factor of my UID is 263267.
ED-209
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
We are
( ) Microsoft
( ) Apple
(X) Google
and we know what's best for you.
Have gnu, will travel.
Hunh? Since when is it a good idea for anyone other than the owner of a piece of hardware to decide, without the right of the owner to override, to uninstall software?
Mostly because it's via the marketplace. From TFA:
Google intends to have its Android Market be the central repository for the vast majority of mobile app distribution. Their oversight will provide users a reservoir of safe, trusted apps under the promise that they have been checked for quality, much like the promise of the App Store....
Sounds very much like what I get from the Ubuntu repositories.
Think about it -- every repository for every distro, or even every sufficiently-privileged package manager, is a kill switch for your computer. When a repository has (very occasionally) accidentally delivered a package with some sort of malware attached, that package was immediately rolled back -- effectively killing the malware. There's no reason a critical update couldn't do anything it wanted to my system -- after all, I have absolutely no warranty to fall back on.
Which means I guess we'll all have to wait and see if this applies -- or is ever used -- for software other than malware, and/or software distributed through channels other than the Marketplace.
That's the real difference -- we're all speculating about how this might work. Apple already has banned apps for no discernable reason whatsoever ("I Am Rich").
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Is there a source for this statement? People in the comment threads have said this a dozen times, but nobody's mentioned why they believe this is true.
Strange as this may sound, if you look hard enough in the summary, you'll find that some words are underlined. The fact is, that if you click on these words, your web browser will take you elsewhere, and even stranger is that one of these "links" (as we call a consequent group of such words leading to the same destination) will lead you to a site other than Slashdot. We call that place the "article" in layman's terms ("TFA" in common Slashdot parlance).
Now, of course, I wouldn't expect you, or many others, to actually know these secrets, but some would consider them a source for points in the discussion of, well, an article.
Because the infamous "kill switch" statement is part of the Android Market Business and Program Policies (see Product Removals). If you don't use Android Market, you're not subject to the kill switch.
And you can get your Android apps elsewhere without jailbreaking, unlike the iPhone.
I'm not laughing because it's funny, I'm laughing because if someone is that absolutely fuck-dumb then I can probably look forward to reading their eventual darwin award.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
Jailbreaking is voids the warranty.
No it doesn't, you simply restore the phone before bringing it in for service.
Voiding the warranty, and then lying and covering your tracks to claim you didn't, qualifies as fraud. Or were you unaware?
Jailbreaking DOES void the warranty
Repeating a lie doesn't make it true.
Apple will not service a Jailbroken phone - but that doesn't mean they will not service a phone that has been restored to the original OS, an operation that takes about five minutes. Once restored Apple cannot tell if it was ever Jailbroken or not.
and if somehow the install ends up messed up, you are screwed with an unbootable iBrick that has no warranty.
And making people afraid of a harmless process that CANNOT BRICK an iPhone even if it fails is despicable.
You seem to confuse unlocking with Jailbreaking (though actually even unlocking now is safe so really you don't even have that excuse). But we are talking about applications here, so only Jailbreaking applies.
Please run along and spread your FUD elsewhere to people who do not know any better - you might try Digg. This is Slashdot where people generally know better.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
First of all, amusing to see this position on /. -- and to see it upmodded! Installing software on a device you actually own and then restoring it before calling support is fraud?
Second, Apple's own geniuses tell customers who bring in jailbroken iPhones to restore them before bringing them in. It's not fraud, it's simply a troubleshooting step, along the lines of reinstalling Windows if something doesn't work.