In a move that would only be surprising to someone who has not followed the mobile app world at all for the last two years, WP7 apps will have remote kill switches built in. This is in case the app hides a malicious or blatantly illegal function, so that Microsoft can prevent it from causing harm by remotely removing it from your handset.
As blatantly privacy invading as that sounds, both Apple and Google have similar mechanisms in place for their OSs, and both have shown admirable restraint in not abusing this power, instead only using it for true emergencies.
“We don’t really talk about it publicly because the focus is on testing of apps to make sure they’re okay, but in the rare event that we need to, we have the tools to take action,” said Todd Biggs, director of product management for Windows Phone Marketplace.
I know, it’s a lot of trust to put in a major company, but given that the competitors have been pretty responsible, we can only hope Microsoft does the same.
[via InformationWeek]
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