Google flexes biceps, flicks Android remote kill switch for the first time
By Sean Hollister 
posted June 25th 2010 4:29AM
posted June 25th 2010 4:29AM
We knew Google had the power to remotely remove Android apps -- Microsoft and Apple have backdoors into their mobile operating systems, too -- but it's always a little disconcerting to see a kill switch used. Such is the case today, as we've just heard Google unleashed the hounds this week, siccing bits and bytes of remote deletion power on a pair of "practically useless" but still Terms of Service-infringing apps. Curiously enough, Google admits that most who'd downloaded these programs had deleted them already, and that this "exercise" of the remote application removal feature was merely a cleanup operation. Google says users will get a notification beamed to their phone if an app is removed, however -- so as Big Brother as that all sounds, at least the company's being nice and transparent about the whole matter, eh?Update: To be clear, the developers of the offending apps had already removed them from the Android Market, so this was technically a cleanup. The only question is why Google would go out of its way to mop up an app that absolutely no one would miss.
[Thanks, Matt]
@Hazdaz The kill switch only applies to market apps. If you install it manually, it'll be fine. If you install it in any way, really, you're fine, considering this is the first time they used it in Android's one and a half year history. If they only remotely kill an app that nobody cares about and may introduce security risks once every one and a half years, I'm fine with that, and don't see any reason at this time to believe they'll do this more frequently.
FYI: Apple does this too. So it's not anything new to this practice. A few weeks ago, my 5 year old was getting ready to play on her iTouch of one of the recently purchased/free games she obtained.
Out of the blue, the app was removed from her iTouch. Also from the app store as well. So it's no suprise Apple has done this and it's no suprise Google has done it now.
@JosephZ I think you're full of it. I have plenty of apps that aren't in the store anymore yet since I backed them up on the computer I can have them anytime on my iPhone.. That would require Apple to delete them off the device and off of my HDD. If it's missing from the device, have her sync it with iTunes to put it back on. If it isn't in iTunes on the CPU, then you have no one to blame but yourself for not backing it up.
@JosephZ Why would you give a 5-year-old an iPod touch instead of something that might be a little more, I dunno, appropriate for someone in Kindergarten? Nice parenting. Ever heard of a playground? And now you're complaining that somehow you failed to back up the phone by simply syncing it, and trying to blame Apple?
@Kaibelf
Kids are allowed to play computer games you know.
I find your slander against his parenting methods highly offensive and totally inappropriate.
Which Android antivirus software do you recommend? I don't trust Google alone to always find malware in time.
@AceMcLoud
The day that I would need an anti-malware app for my cellphone, is the day that I give up on all this crap and go back to some 90's era technology... like a beeper.
What's next? Having to defrag the device every couple of weeks? Oiy!
@Hazdaz why stop there - I probably have some copies of QEMM or other EMS memory manager around on an old 5.25 DS/DD floppy...just the thing everyone's phone needs.
wonder how most of these people would react if they came home only to discover their televisions missing after Sony determined that the tv sets could explode, so instead of waiting for you to get killed they take immediate action... Sighs
I don't like this one bit. Just going in all cowboy and removing an app regardless of the owner's wishes. If it is potentially harmful how about you just tell us and let US make the decision to remove it?
I think these were probably the worse infringing apps in that study that found some apps act like malware. I would prefer if they stopped those apps from entering the market but this is better then having malware remain installed in unsuspecting users phones.
I give Google +1 for doing what had to be done.
Do ya'll think this will start to happen more? I have sound board type apps on my Droid like 'The Hangover.' Apps like these don't seem to be "officially licensed" by the content owners. At what point does the crackdown on those apps begin?
I can see where this can be a good thing. If for some reason spyware or malware gets uploaded to the marketplace, not only can it be removed from the Marketplace, but any devices it was downloaded to, hopefully before any problems occurred to the end user.
nice to see that valid, relative posts are being deleted.
The post title is misleading. This 'feature' is only available in the Market app and is not OS-wide.
You have to figure this is one fabulous opportunity to actually try the feature out. From a software testing viewpoint, the more they can use it in the real world, the less likely it's going to do something really stupid when they really do need it.
The scenario that I find scary would be Google losing some lawsuit and being required to go out and use their kill switch on an app people really want. Still unlikely, but that's my favorite paranoia scenario...