Google operates a more laissez faire attitude to its apps for the Android smart phone than Apple does for iPhone and there are both good and bad sides to this.
The downside was revealed this week when the F-Secure forum reported that what at first appeared to be a harmless game of snake (you know the one where you try to get the big line of dots to eat the little dots) was actually a GPS spy.
That is a really cool tracking device which basically turns someone's smartphone into a sort of tag which tells you where they are at all times.
I say cool because it reminds me of a high-tech gadget from a James Bond movie. In reality the spy would probably be used by people who want to know what their boyfriend/girlfriend/partner/spouse is up to.
The only benign use I can think of for the application is to keep track of where your kids are.
It is now up to Google to either destroy the app or remove it from the Android marketplace. But is it still the job of consumers to make sure that an app is safe before they download it on their phone. That safety check could be something as simple as Googling the app to see what people have said about it.
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