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Honesty at the onset - I have serious issues with the Android Market & I am not an iPhone convert used to another market. That said - I have concerns & questions for which I have not found satisfactory answers. I am hoping others can shed some light on them here.

The Android Market recently removed all of developer 09Droid's apps due to them phishing for banking info. On a positive note,it's my understanding they were removed quickly before too many people were effected, but I want to know ...

  • If Google removes malicious apps, are they removed automatically from my phone? My 1st impression; the anwer is No. (This is after reading multiple articles from tech-organizations like C-net,news-organizations like the Times,& crawling through many forums. Yet, I never got a direct or consensus answer.)

  • These same articles say to check my phone's apps for this developer. Um, okay how? Usually if I want to know who developed my app, I go to the Market. This will not work if the apps have been removed from there. Surely I am not supposed to open each of the 90+ apps > click menu > then "About" or the equivalent. I somewhat looked around the native "Manage Applications", plus the apps aSpotCat, Astro, & MyBackUpPro.

  • Because they targeted banking info & the sheer # of Apps this incident made the news. Anyone know where or if Google even posts Apps they've removed from the Market that are considered malicious? Were the people who downloaded this app even notified to remove it? Are there other apps that have been removed from Market that may be sitting on my phone now?

  • I've read repeatedly that there are fewer issues after uninstalling an app (like with "Ghosting") if they are removed from the Market instead of Menu > Settings. Anyone's experiences with uninstalling lend credence to this or not? How are you insuring clean uninstalls?

Sorry for the length & thanks for your time, - Cathleen

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+1 great question, I've been wondering this too – Isaac Waller Feb 8 at 6:27

2 Answers

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A partial answer: Google definitely has the ability to remove apps installed via the market from users' phones. Here's one article about it, but a search for "google android 'kill switch'" will turn up many others as well.

I don't know if they used it in this case, but will try to do more digging on the issue later.

Edit: I never got around to doing more digging. Heh.

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I hope you have better luck digging than I did. – Cathleen Feb 9 at 1:58
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If applications are removed from the Android Market, and you still have them installed, they will still show in your "Downloads". If you uninstall them you will never be able to re-access them, but you can check the developer and description if you installed them from the Market before they were pulled.

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Thats at least is good to know. There needs to be an easier way to know the developer for each app. – Cathleen Feb 14 at 23:17
Do you know are you notified that it has been removed so you can make the choice? – Cathleen Feb 14 at 23:24

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