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Microsoft has joined the ranks of Apple and Google in placing what, to some, is considered a controversial security measure into its mobile application platform.
Built into Windows Phone 7, and the apps made available through the included marketplace application, is a layer of security that lets Microsoft disable or remove entirely an application from a user's device.
According to a PC Pro interview with Todd Biggs, Microsoft's director of product management for the Windows Phone Marketplace, this is a worst-case scenario type of security measure, and something that is unlikely to be a common occurrence given the company's testing process prior to an app becoming available on the market.
Biggs also noted that apps can simply be pulled down from the market if trouble is suspected.
Apple made headlines in late 2008 when it was discovered that built into every app was a line of code that would phone home to make sure it wasn't on Apple's blacklist, and the app would become disabled if it was. This was later revealed to be more about protecting the security of a user's location for apps that might seek to share it without the user knowing. Around the same time it was discovered that Google's Android had a kill switch of its own that would let Google remove an application remotely.
The presence of a software kill switch would not be a first for Microsoft, which included such a feature at an OS level in the first incarnation of Windows Vista. However, that in itself was less about stopping potentially harmful developers, versus keeping people who might have pirated the software from using it to its fullest. That feature was later removed with the software's first major service pack, due in part to what Microsoft said was a much lower rate of piracy.
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Built into Windows Phone 7, and the apps made available through the included marketplace application, is a layer of security that lets Microsoft disable or remove entirely an application from a user's device.
According to a PC Pro interview with Todd Biggs, Microsoft's director of product management for the Windows Phone Marketplace, this is a worst-case scenario type of security measure, and something that is unlikely to be a common occurrence given the company's testing process prior to an app becoming available on the market.
Biggs also noted that apps can simply be pulled down from the market if trouble is suspected.
Apple made headlines in late 2008 when it was discovered that built into every app was a line of code that would phone home to make sure it wasn't on Apple's blacklist, and the app would become disabled if it was. This was later revealed to be more about protecting the security of a user's location for apps that might seek to share it without the user knowing. Around the same time it was discovered that Google's Android had a kill switch of its own that would let Google remove an application remotely.
The presence of a software kill switch would not be a first for Microsoft, which included such a feature at an OS level in the first incarnation of Windows Vista. However, that in itself was less about stopping potentially harmful developers, versus keeping people who might have pirated the software from using it to its fullest. That feature was later removed with the software's first major service pack, due in part to what Microsoft said was a much lower rate of piracy.
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