Android Market Place Pulls An Apple, Shows Us Remote Application Removal Feature!

Android Security Lead published that the team has removed, two applications, remotely, that did not meet guidelines set by the Android Market Developer Distribution Agreement or Content Policy.

Recently, we became aware of two free applications built by a security researcher for research purposes. These applications intentionally misrepresented their purpose in order to encourage user downloads, but they were not designed to be used maliciously, and did not have permission to access private data — or system resources beyond permission.INTERNET. As the applications were practically useless, most users uninstalled the applications shortly after downloading them.



After the researcher voluntarily removed these applications from Android Market, we decided, per the Android Market Terms of Service, to exercise our remote application removal feature on the remaining installed copies to complete the cleanup.

The remote application removal feature is one of many security controls Android possesses to help protect users from malicious applications and I guess this is a real life test, to make sure that the team has the capability to take necessary action on behalf of users’ safety when needed.
Guess Daddy Rules.

Android Developers Blog: Exercising Our Remote Application Removal Feature