With great success comes great responsibility. Also with great success comes some potentially not so great outside forces that can potentially ruin the experience for others. The “P” word has been slung around over the years, mostly with music, TV shows, and movies, but has also made its way over to mobile. Pirated Android apps have been floating around the Internet and seems app developers have struck a nice win, at least for the time being.
The Department of Justice seized and shut down three websites which were accused of distributing pirated Android apps. Of course, piracy isn’t the only issue that Android faces. Privacy and security is also a big deal.
Unfortunately, malicious apps have managed to make their way into the Play Store (and elsewhere) and steal such personal information as phone numbers, even money like the SMSZombie which infected more than 500,000 Android users in China. Android has a system in place that scans the app marketplace and checks for such malicious apps and does a good job, but sometimes an app sneaks through the cracks only to be discovered later.
Android is founded on openness so anyone can upload an app and get running. Because of this, users should take some necessary precautions. If an app looks suspicious, don’t install it, plain and simple. Also, if you’re going to download an app from third party website, absolutely make sure it’s trusted and legit. Lastly, pay close attention to reviews. Too many negative and you should probably stay away.
All in all, there’s a lot of good things going for Android. As time goes on, so will the security measures which find and destroy malicious apps. In the meantime, one should always be on alert. And if you find a pirated app that you want, just don’t install it. It’s better to spend the little bit of cash than risk giving up who knows what information.