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Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps
Meshach writes "The terms of service for Microsoft's newly launched Windows Store allows the seller to remotely kill or remove access to a user's apps for security or legal reasons. The story also notes that MS states purchasers are responsible for backing up the data that you store in apps that you acquire via the Windows Store, including content you upload using those apps. If the Windows Store, an app, or any content is changed or discontinued, your data could be deleted or you may not be able to retrieve data you have stored."
I doubt the three people who own one of these devices reads slashdot.
So can apple.
To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
I can understand a company wanting, or needing, to provide a way to remove malware or illegal content. I can't say I fully agree with it, but I can understand the need. So the existence of such a system, in and of itself, isn't a particularly Bad Thing.
But this had better not be misused. Unless it's actively and secretly causing damage to the system (sending out spam or whatnot), it had better have a court order to be forcibly removed from users' computers. Maybe even then.
No deleting people's apps just because the seller removed it. No deleting people's apps because of some vague DMCA request. It had better be a legitimate, legally-validated removal.
I think a good way to ensure this would be that, if it is ever used, both Microsoft and the seller have to refund the cost to the user. That won't help much for free apps, but it would really help make sure regular apps aren't pulled back for no real reason.
They're moving towards a complete lease model as opposed to ownership.
You already lease your software anyway.
This version of Windows will pretty much make you lease your hardware what with the "secure" boot for all practical purposes. And you'll be leasing any administrator access MS might grant you as well.
Check your premises.
What the hell is wrong with our IT industry and its hostility towards their users? When did this start and where did we go wrong that brought us to this state?!
Control as opposed to freedom. Apple had engaged in jailing its users, and made exorbitant amounts of money over it, and all corps are now following suit.
............
When jobs died, we discussed this at length. Many of us told that he set a very very harmful trend with apple, and because of the success that model had with milking the customers, ALL corporations would naturally follow suit. A lot of people objected.
And lo. Microsoft happily is following suit.
Read radical news here
Another reason to avoid Windows.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Get off my lawn.
It sounds like Microsoft is just explicitly passing the buck for terminating an application to the application's vendor, not like they're trying to assume that capability and responsibility for anything, including malware cleanup. I'd think malware cleanup options would fall under the purview of the anti-virus service providers.
Note I said service provider. Like it or not, maintaining a secure system means subscribing to maintenance services for a lot of the software you need. You haven't been able to "buy" a lot of critical services for a long time. This is not a new delivery model by any stretch of the imagination.
Even Linux relies on service providers -- the distribution packagers and testers.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I've already lived this with iTunes. I bought iFitness (more here. During an iOS upgrade there was some sort of issue and PC backup turned out to be corrupt and couldn't restore the apps. "No problem," I thought, "I downloaded all of these apps from the store, I can just re-download everything."
Nope, despite being one of the five best fitness apps it was pulled from the market for unknown reasons. Some claim it was banned for posting fake positive reviews, but that seems completely unnecessary considering how much praise iFitness received.
Because of that I no longer trust my phone or the "cloud" to keep my data safe.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
And I'm guessing that the majority of folks here have at least one windows box.
I have several. The flowers love the sun and the heat from the house keeps them from perishing on those freak cold spring nights.
have root access to them.
You mean this? They "defeated" it by turning it off. Pretty serious exploit I think.
-1 overrated isn't the same thing as "I disagree".
Also on the iPhone, you are slightly better off since there's a centralized non-Apple store - Cydia.
Better off? Do you realize that there are a whole range of non-Google stores available for Android (ranging from strictly OSS to strictly warez), and that many of them are installable directly from Google's market without even requiring root?
After reading the article and the comments on this page, I have decided to give up. I've smashed two of by backup HDDs with a hammer, unplugged my headphones and placed them on my dog (he may eat them later), glued all my install CDs together with superglue and placed it near the front door so I can use it as a doorstop, removed mingw and eclipse, downloaded visual C++ express, deleted visual c++ express, repartitioned my primary hard drive to contain 42 partitions, rewired my box to avoid having to use the stupid PSU (CPU now connects directly to a wall socket), eaten a pen (quite tasty, but the ink stain around my mouth is annoying), smashed my keyboard because it's not necessary anymore -- I will just touch my monitors; smashed my monitors and thrown them out the door because they did not support touch, put the mouse in my underpants (I dunno why, but it does feel good). Bought a Commodore 64 off of EBay.
I feel much better now.
There's a Windows phone now? And it has apps too? Plus the data you upload to Microsoft servers can be deleted by them? *And* they put a killswitch in the phone to uninstall apps remotely?
;)
...seriously, this is exactly what everyone else does, following the shitty example that Apple and Amazon set for them. I know you can jailbreak an iPhone and turn off the killswitch with a swipe of the finger, but I doubt anyone cares enough yet to jailbreak a Windows phone. But they will. Whether there are ever enough apps in the Windows Store to make Microsoft have to wipe one from the few phones they sell is another question
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Microsoft warns users to backup their data. In other news, the NOAA warns that rain may make you wet.
Then I think you don't understand Cydia. Cydia itself has no apps. It is nothing but a front end to a set of repositories. Cydia does come with some pre-installed repositories. But if you want other apps, you have to discover new repositories and add them to access the apps they offer. And like the various Android marketplaces, some repositories are more deserving of your trust than others. If you connect to a warez repository, well, you were warned.
Once Cydia is installed, yes, it's seamless to access apps from any of the repositories you added. But you still have to hunt for the repositories with the "interesting" apps.
John
Apple first used it in 2009. for nudity (to us Australians who aren't afraid of the human body, this seem pants on head retarded).
here's another from 2010
So it seems your information is a bit out of date... and completely fabricated.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
2009: Your article talks about people being able to run the app still. The app which therefore hasn't been remote wiped. It doesn't work because the head-end it talks to was taken down. That was owned and run by the app vendor, not Apple. This is clearly not remote-kill; this is the risk of any head-end reliant app from any vendor anywhere. See also: http://www.pcworld.com/article/167383/update_apple_pulls_hottest_girls_porn_app_from_itunes.html?tk=rel_news
2010: Note the "Update: No" in http://www.razorianfly.com/2010/07/08/did-apple-just-use-the-ios-kill-switch/
See? We can both cherry pick random unsubstantiated Google search results.
TTBOMK there has been not one single verified, independently documented, uncontested example of a remote-kill on iOS. Numerous apps have been pulled from the store, though.
First, they probably never purchased the apps but got a license that allows them to use the app. That license grants the user certain rights, like numbers of copies a user can run, on what device, on what day and in what rooms of the house. Certain users abuse these rights,
Second, Microsoft doesn't kill apps. Apps are like children to Microsoft. And if you mistreat them you might lose custody.
Finally, "remotely kill" sounds like a drone attack, but Microsoft is just helping the users to avoid running apps they shouldn't. A more neutral term would be "Microsoft can remotely assist users to disable apps."
P.S: I'm also looking for a new job, anything near Seattle would be swell.