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Microsoft Can Remotely Kill Purchased Apps

Posted by samzenpus on from the killing-distance dept.

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."

17 of 389 comments (clear)

  1. doubt it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I doubt the three people who own one of these devices reads slashdot.

    1. Re:doubt it by forkfail · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The app store isn't just for Windows Mobile. It's for all of Windows 8. Which means that the summary missed the big ramification: as of Windows 8, you will absolutely no longer exclusively have root for your hardware.

      And I'm guessing that the majority of folks here have at least one windows box.

      --
      Check your premises.
    2. Re:doubt it by nomel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nobody will be forcing anyone to use metro or buy any of the walled garden metro apps. It's just a program that lets you run the sandboxed metro apps. Close it or boot into the standard desktop. Most metro apps will support windows mobile devices and the desktop.

      To the vast majority of users that download and try all the free apps they can click on and who don't know or care about any of this, being able to fix a "my phone is infected and doesn't work!" type scenarios is absolutely a feature.

      Also, I doubt any os provider will want to be in the spotlight for causing mass network outages after some trojan decides to activate on 100,000 phones, with no way to stop it.

    3. Re:doubt it by tepples · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Then they'd be no more different than the iOS App Store is from the Mac App Store. Those have roughly the same rules and the same pricing ($99 per year plus 30% of revenue), with one difference: in Mac OS X 10.7 you still don't have to jailbreak or join the developer program to run your own software on your own machine. Microsoft has indicated that the Windows Store will be the only way to obtain Metro Style apps; this probably means that joining the developer program (required for sideloading) will likewise cost money.

    4. Re:doubt it by lightknight · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And Ballmer's sad parade of preferring DRM over any other form of innovation nears its end, with the death of Microsoft.

      Were I in charge of MS, my first standing order would be to rip out all DRM components from the OS, and dispatch any board member that disagreed with me. Followed shortly by my second order, which is to quit hiding / moving the fricking control panel every time we release a new version of Windows. And my third, and probably last order, before the shareholders revolt, would be to complete the migration of all OS functions to managed code. I say last order, as it would take several additional years to complete, during which the shareholders will no doubt lose confidence in my long term plan, and act to replace me.

      At no time, during my reign, would I forget that the company was founded on a simple principle: personal computers. More specifically, the importance of personal computers, as a paradigm, as opposed to mainframes, how the two differ, and why the personal computer propelled the company to success in the first place. More importantly, however much I might be annoyed with piracy, and given to personal fantasies of turning pirates into paying customers, I will be aware that every person who runs a pirated copy of my software is not running a copy of the competition's. Additionally, I would be mindful to exercise every opportunity to utilize the underlying OS and hardware to provide a better "experience" to the end user than could reasonably be fabricated through a web browser.

      --
      I am John Hurt.
    5. Re:doubt it by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did the shelf life of XP and 7 just increase?

      XP will be around for a LONG time after Microsoft stops with the updates. It's not like it's going to suddenly stop working on April 9th, 2014. Microsoft by law can't "remote-kill" it, any more than they could DOS, WIn3x, and Win9x (there are plenty of those still running). And it's not like you're going to hit update.microsoft.com after the EOL date.

      I expect to see all the AV vendors branching out into "protecting" your now unsupported XP as part of their enhanced anti-virus suites. Businesses will snap it up rather than pay the cost of fixing their software against the latest moving target.

  2. And? by masternerdguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So can apple.

    --
    To offset political mods, replace Flamebait with Insightful.
    1. Re:And? by obarthelemy · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's it. Since Phone apps are at the whim of the provider, I'm moving all my stuff to the cloud !

      --
      The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
    2. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      And? So can apple.

      On one hand, that is so off-topic that you and all the people modding you should be ashamed.

      A SELLER of apps on the Apple store CAN NOT cause their app to be removed. At all.

      Apple can. The seller CAN NOT.

      Of course Microsoft can. The point here that you completely missed is that individual sellers using the store now have this ability.

      As an iApp developer, I simply do NOT have any ability to do as you imply and remove an app from anyone's device but my own.
      Only Apple can do that.

      So you are all of wrong, off topic, mistaken, and completely missing the point.

  3. Re:This better not be misused... by retech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once given you can rest assured any power will be abused.

  4. What is it with this trend of hostility? by Lotana · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?!

    1. Re:What is it with this trend of hostility? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It happened when the likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook realised that being the owner of a walled garden (or even a slightly fenced garden) means you can do more-or-less what you like to users once you've locked them in.

      A lot of people might be upset, but 97% of them won't do any more than bitch about it on Slashdot/Facebook/Reddit/whatever, and they'll still keep buying. The few who really will vote with their wallets for a more user-friendly alternative or go without products/services that come with nasty strings attached are so small in number that the big players can just ignore them.

      That means the platform owners can adopt whatever abusive practices they want to make more money, short of breaking the law enough to lose a major lawsuit. And since the law everywhere is at least a decade behind the implications of modern technology, a lot of things that thoughtful geeks might consider dangerous aren't actually illegal anyway, at least not clearly so.

      None of this will change until either a large consumer backlash begins (which is not beyond the bounds of possibility in the world today, but is on a gentle simmer right now) or legislation starts getting written by smart, thoughtful people who think through the implications of modern technology, understand the need to protect consumers, also understand the need to make commerce reasonably profitable, and try to come up with policies that balance these factors in a fair way (and then I woke up...).

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    2. Re:What is it with this trend of hostility? by bmo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What the hell is wrong with our IT industry and its hostility towards their users?

      Because users are completely, utterly, stupid. At least the vast majority of them. 90 percent of people (I'm sure the statistic is higher) don't want computers. They think they want computers. What they really want are magic boxes that do magic things and don't want to worry about any kind of maintenance. Steve Jobs knew this. Microsoft is merely catching up.

      And Slashdot is not representative of the "computing" public. What you want, dear Lotana, doesn't count.

      --
      BMO

  5. Re:"And" ? what "and" ? This is the egg jobs laid by flosofl · · Score: 5, Informative

    That may be the case, but I've never had Apple yank an app from my iPhone. Even an app that I purchased that Apple subsequently removed from the store for "violations". Still have it and I used it many many times since it was no longer "legit".

    I have had Amazon delete a book I was in the middle of right off my Kindle (not in mid-read, when the kindle went to sleep). They did refund me, but that's not quite the point is it Amazon?

    --
    "This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
  6. I have several. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  7. Oh, and I definitely ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    have root access to them.

  8. Score 5, Informative?! Are you kidding me? by pond0123 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.