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HTC Desire S Owner’s Guide – V1.02 | wnp_79
unofficial sources
could
have been tampered with to gain control of your phone in
some way or access your data. Before an app is installed via the Marketplace, it
has
to list what areas of the phone (permissions) this app accesses. Use common sense.
For example be wary of a “wallpaper” app that requires access to your phonebook!
Appreciate though that most apps are free to you because they are subsidised by
adverts. These will need internet access and your location info, so they can see
which country you are in and download the appropriate advert. Expect free apps to
ask for these permissions. They are not spying on you! There are plenty out there
that although they don’t attack your phone directly, they’ll steal the contacts in your
phonebook and sell the info to marketing companies. Oh and I know it should go
without saying, but apps with “sexy” or “girls” or both in a title, pretty much
guarantees them to be nefarious even if they do deliver on their promise of hot ass.
Same goes for all the 3rd party web browsers that claim to be good for porn surfing!
There are very few known viruses for Android as its Linux based and you do not
have Root access so there’s not much they could do. HTC also have extra security
on their system partition (S-On) to prevent it from being changed in any way. It’s a
pain-in-the-ass for people wanting S-Off and custom ROMS, but normal users can
be assured their phone is not easily hacked or tampered with. However it can’t be
long until the growing popularity of Android (350,000 devices a day activated)
encourages the arseholes who write viruses to leave Windows alone and focus on a
new challenge. You are also at risk if you don’t check permissions before installing
something (easily done, you can get complacent after a while) and give a dodgy app
permission
to access certain areas. At present you can’t deny certain permissions
and allow others. If an App is to be installed, you have to either chose yes to all
permissions, or no to all and hence cancel the installation.
Best to play it safe. I can recommend installing something ‘Lookout Mobile Security’.
It’s a free and trust-worthy anti-virus and anti-malware app for Android phones. It
doesn’t hog memory or battery power, it automatically updates virus definitions, and
automatically scans
anything
you install. It even has a party trick of being able to
track the location of your phone via their website should it be lost or stolen. You can
(also via the website) get it to make your phone ring at full volume if you have
misplaced the phone in the house somewhere!