“Google has removed an app made by the Taliban from its Play store,” David Goldman reports for CNNMoney.
“The Taliban app was first discovered on Friday by SITE Intel Group, a website devoted to tracking jihadists online,” Goldman reports. “The propaganda product was taken down shortly thereafter.”
Goldman reports, “Jihadist groups, including the Taliban, have successfully used the Internet and social media to spread propaganda and recruit fighters. Apps, however, are strictly regulated by Google and Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh yeah, Google’s real strict:
• Porn clicker keeps infecting Android apps on Google Play – July 24, 2015
• Crucial security flaw found in Google Play: Thousands of secret keys found in Android apps – June 19, 2014
• Malicious Android apps spike nearly 400 percent in in Google Play store – February 20, 2014
• Google Play ‘flaw’ puts users’ personal data on display – February 14, 2013
• Security researcher labels nearly 300,000 Google Play Android apps as ‘high-risk’ – November 1, 2012You get the idea. Google Play makes cesspools look spotless.
“The Taliban app, called ‘Alemarah,’ gave people the ability to keep up with the latest Taliban news,” Goldman reports. “They could watch videos made by the group, and read stories and updates written in Pashto.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Google’s Android. “Open” in all the wrong ways.
Don’t settle for insecure wannabes.
If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone.
SEE ALSO:
Android malware hits Aussie bank customers, iOS users unaffected – March 10, 2016
Android malware steals one-time passcodes, a crucial defense for online banking – January 14, 2016
New Android malware is so bad, you’d better off buying a new phone – November 6, 2015
Apple issues iPhone manifesto; blasts Android’s lack of updates, lack of privacy, rampant malware – August 10, 2015
New Android malware strains to top 2 million by end of 2015 – July 1, 2015
Symantec: 1 in 5 Android apps is malware – April 25, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “TJ” for the heads up.]
“… strictly regulated by Google and Apple”
Yeah, the two companies are just the same, right?
Sheesh…
Reporters misguided attempt to be fair and balanced to the point of inaccuracy.
It’s a wonder that they are not complaining that the Taliban is being treated unfairly.
As Voltaire so eloquently said “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
This is a true liberal’s mantra. Google has the absolute right, as does Apple, to decide what they will carry in their store. They have the right to censor inside their store. The difference is that on Android, there are scores of other stores available, so the platform itself is not censored. This makes Android more like shopping in the real world, which is “know where to legally get what you want”, not “you can’t get it even if it’s legal”.
Wrong thread, but I’ll play along.
You have the right to choose a platform that has lots of spam and other unwanted software. Or, you can choose a platform, as I did, that allows competitors but not the invading junk ware and spam. I chose Apple’s way, you are free to choose the other.
Lol. The government must have paid Google well.
As Hillary’s electronic mails show, Google was her “regime change” tool in Syria in cahoots with Al-Jazeera, a Qatari propaganda outlet.
Qatar is Wahhabi/Salafist radical tyranny that is one of “regime change” sponsors, and it finances and arms Al-Qaeda clone terrorist group Ahrar that fights against legal secular non-sectarian government.
And you wonder why ISIS is growing. They’re using every available method to recruit new terrorists including Twitter, Facebook, and messaging services like Telegram.
Telegram, Lol
But I thought Google ‘vetted’ apps before they went into the Play Store!
Again, hypocrisy from Google. Will Android ever be a safe operating system environment? Meanwhile, Google continues their efforts to find security flaws in everyone else’s software…. I’m getting the idea that their ‘Project Zero’ is a marketing manoeuvre to deflect attention from their own security flaws and laziness.
Rats! We were the ones who put that on the Google Play Store to give us a back door into the Taliban. I hope they don’t find our ISIL apps too. No one suspects our Apps to spy on the US citizens yet though.