Are Google apps for Android safe?

While the openness of the Android app market is normally beneficial to users, it can also make them vulnerable.
According to a report by SMobile Systems, a mobile security firm, as many as one fifth of Google apps for Android can expose your data to third party hackers.
The report states: "The Android Market offers flexibility by allowing anyone to develop and publish an application to the consumer market. This presents the opportunity to easily defraud innocent consumers for financial gain. Since today’s Smartphone devices are the equivalent of mobile computers, it is logical that attackers have expanded their focus."
Google said that it was regulating the market but that it had had to remove two dodgy applications so far from the devices of Android smartphone users.
A security lead for Android, Rich Cannings, stated in the blog post that the remote application removal feature is one of many security controls that Google uses to protect Android users from malicious applications.