Google Has Android Remote App Install Power, Too

Trailrunner7 writes "The remote-wipe capability that Google recently invoked to remove a harmless application from some Android phones isn't the only remote control feature that the company built into its mobile OS. It turns out that Android also includes a feature that enables Google to remotely install apps on users' phones as well. Jon Oberheide, the security researcher who developed the application that Google remotely removed from Android phones, noticed during his research that the Android OS includes a feature called INSTALL_ASSET that allows Google to remotely install applications on users' phones. 'I don't know what design decision they based that on. Maybe they just figured since they had the removal mechanism, it's easy to have the install mechanism too,' Oberheide said in an interview. 'I don't know if they've used it yet.'"

Comments

Re:verizon does this to my blackberry

[uvajed_ekil]

Please cut out any rape or nazi analogies, okay? This is "vaguely unsettling," while there is nothing vague or merely unsettling about rape. That shit is not cool. And if you install a Bing icon, which Google is pretty unlikely to do any time soon, you deserve to be raped by nazis anyway.

Re:This is great news

[fishexe]

I'm not trying to troll, but really. if you compare the the two platforms one is mostly open and one is glued shut.

I'm not trying to troll, but really; if you compare the two platforms one is mostly...

I'm not trying to troll, but really: "I don't want to sound like a queer or nothin', but I'd kinda like to make love to you tonight."