Google Android kill switch

The day before I noticed an application named "ON smarter address book" showing up in my notifications as finished installing. I have no clue how this application got installed on my mobile. This was the first time I was seeing this app in the market place. Not sure if my tinkering with the android caused this, but I was very puzzled. Surely, the tinkering my 5 yr old daughter does on my phone would not have done the install?!!

I had read about google using the "kill switch" on some applications but is it possible to install any remotely? Yes, but that was only possible if someone used my online google account and installed some application on my mobile. This was getting weirder by the minute. On top of this, I realized that a couple of applications, mainly free trial kids games, were missing from my phone. Ok. that would surely have been the kill switch. But there was no way of finding out. I can probably understand Google's decision to quickly remove any malicious app from the market AND from MY phone, but couldn't they at least leave a log somewhere, even in the market place, to let me know what they removed from my phone? Well, big brother knows best I guess!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hurray for the vacation!

Image
The kids almost jumped up as soon as we called them in the morning. What contrast from the going-to-school mornings! Just a mere whisper and they were up. Finally, it was the day they were counting down to. The day I would start my vacation and our family would start the journey to Kerala to meet their grandparents.  They had started the countdown at least ten days back with the ritual question "How many days more to go?". So I remember distinctly the 10,9,8... The question would be repeated both in the morning and in the evening although not necessarily restricted to two times a day. My eldest even prepared an elaborate check-list, complete with all the items that were needed to reach the destination. The check-list started with a "wake up" and went on for two pages. She had even illustrated it! (I was allowed to put it on the blog with a little blur effects.)  So today as soon as they woke up, they grabbed the check-list and ticked of the first item.
Read more

screenshot on android

I had been looking to take screenshots on my android for some time now. But couldn't find a way out without rooting the phone. So it was great to find another way, although a round about one. It suited me because I already had the java and android sdk in place on my work laptop. Yes, its a work around. And you can read about it here . Have also read that the next version of android, i.e 2.2 froyo, is supposed to have built in support with key combination press. Don't know how much of it is true.
Read more

Adieu my collegues.. until the next time

Image
Two months of notice period have passed, and I arrive at the last day in office. Like most people, I too am bad with goodbyes. I want to leave with words that would leave behind some portion of my experiences, but know that whatever I say would not do justice to it. There would always be the few people, who made my stay great, that I would not be able to say bye to properly. But then it is my hope that I would definitely be keeping in touch with them in the future. So in that sense, it is not goodbye but until the next time! For a long time I was wondering what I would say. Goodbye in itself is sufficient, but feels bland to me. I mean, in this age of digital and social media, we could always keep in touch. Most of you would either be already on my Facebook or Google+ or LinkedIn list right? So it is utmost ease to keep in touch in the future. But I still have the nags to put in more words, possibly because I am getting older. I hear that folks talk more as they age. And given the
Read more