Android apps are not safe. And not just for those of the ilk who think ".exe" is an appropriate extension for funny cat pics - Android apps are potentially unsafe for normal people too... The problem is that capable ne'er-do-wells are taking legitimate apps, re-engineering them with private-detail-siphoning malware, and then re-releasing them into the Android Marketplace; a process that leaves their trojan apps almost indistinguishable from the originals. Unless you happen to know that "Screaming Sexy Japanese Girls" or "Hilton Sex Sound" were not originally published by "Myournet", there is no way to tell at face value that these are not perfectly reputable. Less seedy apps such "Photo Editor" and "Scientific Calculator" were also compromised.
The ars technica piece focuses on the differences this highlights between the Marketplace and the Apple App Store (the photo header lady began her digital life fondling a stack of apples, how droll), and I am sure these are the terms under which people are going to think about this issue. Will people care more that there iPhone can't use Flash, or that there are seemingly legitimate Android apps out there that can "yank IMEI and IMSI [...] product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID [and can also] download more code"?
That is an unfairly loaded question - the larger issue is to do with the user freedom that Android offers versus the increased level of user security that Apple guarantees. In the same way that security requires restriction, freedom requires responsibility, right? In that case, to whom does the responsibility belong? Google stripped all hacked apps out of the Marketplace within five minutes of the issue being reported, so fair play to them, but prior to this over 50000 users had downloaded unsafe code. There is a limit to how proactive they can be in policing such an open system, and reactive measures are always going to come too late for thousands of users.
It seems like the inevitable conclusion will be for this issue to further polarize Apple/Android device usership along lines of "tech savviness", but even for those unlikely to accidentally gouge out both eyes trying to turn on a pocket calculator, it may be worth reflecting upon the words of legendary pimp John Philpot Curran.
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