Comments on: Think Palm and iPhone ‘Spyware’ is Scary? Try Google Android

By: --

-- — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:54:58 +0000

Hey! It's what people want. They sold out a long time ago for a little hype.

By: Me

Me — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:17:01 +0000

I found this site because I need Verizon's Droid phone in my life but I'm wondering if, with Google such a stickler for collecting personal data, the Android software is clean, or if it spies on you? Does anyone know?

By: gdusing

gdusing — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:38:47 +0000

There's nothing creepy in asking for a billing address when you need one, but the prospect of untrusted websites being able to access this information is. I've been looking for Android anti spyware software download and so far it seems there aren't that many options, you basically have to watch out for untrusted websites.

By: Remove Spyware

Remove Spyware — Sun, 23 May 2010 21:02:17 +0000

I think spyware exit in both iphone and Google Android

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:51:01 +0000

> I don't think most app purchasers on android realize that their personal information is being sent to the developer.

Yes, we do. This is COMPLETELY normal. It allows us as customers to get things like customer support, upgrades, and benefits. In fact, I more surprised to learn that iPHone app developers do NOT get this information.

Seriously, wtf?

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:51:01 +0000

By: nexusoneforum

nexusoneforum — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:13:28 +0000

If a customer purchased this from you directly you'd have the same information. I don't see it as being creepy either.

By: managercommunication

managercommunication — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:28:28 +0000

Do no evil is sometimes not so easy.

By: Name

Name — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:20:30 +0000

On a totally separate privacy note: its one thing to blur out the last name when someone has a common first name (“David” or “John”), but what exactly do you think yr accomplishing by blurring out Baratunde's last name?

By: Jonathan Wegener

Jonathan Wegener — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:09:54 +0000

Thanks for all the comments folks — interesting to see that most people don't see the unexpected transmission of personal information surprising when purchasing an app.

The point of this post was to make people think about the current fear mongering around spyware on mobile phones. The media makes it out to be like the developers are watching you and know everything about you based on analytics. But on iPhone and Palm, they know very little about their users — just vague anonymous information. But on Android, they DO KNOW everything about — developers are given the names and practically the addresses of all its users and combined with the location data that's passed back, has some scary privacy implications.

I don't think most app purchasers on android realize that their personal information is being sent to the developer. That fact certainly surprised me and led to this post.