Microsoft willingly allowing malicious apps in the Windows Store to obtain a cut of the profits

[jmaster299]

People developing fake apps to trick people into spending money is nothing new. Google is horrible about not giving a shit about malicious apps and fails to remove apps even after they are reported. By Microsoft is being accused of taking it a step further. Like with Apple's app store, apps have to be first verified and approved by Microsoft before they can be sold in their app store. Supposedly Microsoft is approving apps that tick people into thinking they are something they are not so they can keep a cut of the money.

Looking for various apps, including VLC, iTunes, Adobe’s Flash, Firefox, Candy Crush Saga, WhatsApp, Spotify, and many others, the search results will return many apps, in addition to the real ones, that charge users money for simply offering a link to the apps actual download link, if not actually sending them to malware-providing sites.

Updated with link to BGR for people who couldn't follow the link with in the article.

https://bgr.com/2014/08/18/microsoft-windows-store-scam-apps/

 

[Askew]

What the hell is this? It seems a tad sensationalist, I wonder if it's true can anyone confirm?

 

I know how to avoid this crap but it's predatory, they should advise customers on how to avoid such scams not assist the profiteers.

 

This reminds me of those 'information on how to' eBay listings...

[Kilerbomb]

Yahoo news as the source? They're worse than WCCF by far...

[Builder]

Unsurprising. So Google has an unregulated app store filled with malware, and Microsoft has a regulated app store filled with malware. Take a wild guess as to who has a regulated app store with no malware?

 

Yahoo news as the source? They're worse than WCCF by far...

 

They reference BGR. It's not really Yahoo.

[AlexGoesHigh]

that doesn't make sense, they already cash pile on windows, just because the store on its own doesn't profit are allowing this, this doesn't make sense at all, though i wonder if defender automatically flags it, if its a very know one like a trojan, that would funny, if this is legitimate, which i think is not

[Trik'Stari]

This is why I enjoy using my phone to make/receive calls and texts. Look things up, play music, and that's it. I never have to worry about "malicious apps" because I'm not stupid enough to buy into the app fad anyways.

 

To quote Nelson

[Skylercompany]

Microsoft barely has a support team so I am not surprised to see them having an app store filled with this nasty stuff.

 

Always do you due diligence and you will be perfectly fine.

[jmaster299]

Yahoo news as the source? They're worse than WCCF by far...

Yahoo copies and pastes from legit sources. But since you can't follow their source link, here it is https://bgr.com/2014/08/18/microsoft-windows-store-scam-apps/

[Kamina]

It's because they fired all those employees that verify apps.

[jmaster299]

Apple is facing a huge lawsuit because parents were too lazy to enable buying restrictions on their iPhone or iPad before giving it to their kid. If Apple can be held responsible for other peoples' stupidity, Microsoft would have to be held responsible for allowing stuff like this to get approved.

[Willock]

I guess big powers like Apple don't think they have to be accountable even though they know that thier product could harm children. I mean they know thier products influence kids, to not do more to ensure thier safety perhaps is criminal.

[mr moose]

I guess big powers like Apple don't think they have to be accountable even though they know that thier product could harm children. I mean they know thier products influence kids, to not do more to ensure thier safety perhaps is criminal.

I don't think it was criminal but it was definitely negligent, the issues with the in app purchases was not explained anywhere in the manuals or terms of service, that's why they had issues. 

[jmaster299]

I don't think it was criminal but it was definitely negligent, the issues with the in app purchases was not explained anywhere in the manuals or terms of service, that's why they had issues. 

It requires entering the password for your iTunes to download anything or to authorize micro transactions of any kind. The only way kids can spend that money, without their parents knowing about it, is because the parents intentionally disabled the need for the password, or they used a stupidly easy password that the kid could guess. That makes it 100% the parents fault. If they are too lazy to know that their kids are doing with electronic devices, and they fail to take the steps to prevent the kid from doing things they are not supposed to, that is not Apple's fault.

It was also in the ToS, but no one reads it and they use that as an excuse. Apple has no liability and any court should be tossing out any lawsuit for it.

[mr moose]

It requires entering the password for your iTunes to download anything or to authorize micro transactions of any kind. The only way kids can spend that money, without their parents knowing about it, is because the parents intentionally disabled the need for the password, or they used a stupidly easy password that the kid could guess. That makes it 100% the parents fault. If they are too lazy to know that their kids are doing with electronic devices, and they fail to take the steps to prevent the kid from doing things they are not supposed to, that is not Apple's fault.

It was also in the ToS, but no one reads it and they use that as an excuse. Apple has no liability and any court should be tossing out any lawsuit for it.

not true,  in the original ipads the password remains active for all transactions for 15 minutes.  There is already a thread around here that discusses what happened quite thoroughly. What it boiled down to was basically an oversight on apples part. 

 

linustechtips.com/main/topic/102640-apple-to-refund-325m-to-parents-whose-kids-made-in-app-purchases/page-3

[Builder]

not true,  in the original ipads the password remains active for all transactions for 15 minutes.  There is already a thread around here that discusses what happened quite thoroughly. What it boiled down to was basically an oversight on apples part. 

 

linustechtips.com/main/topic/102640-apple-to-refund-325m-to-parents-whose-kids-made-in-app-purchases/page-3

And as a result, they are now implementing an excellent Family Group system where you can choose what your kids get to buy and make the app ask for confirmation from a parent before fulfilling the order.

 

Honestly I wouldn't leave kids with an iPad anyways, I played with Legos and read books when I was a kid, and dammit, my kids will do the same! Well, most of the time. It's fairly easy to not let your kids rack up tons of in app purchases if you aren't stupid about it.

[mr moose]

And as a result, they are now implementing an excellent Family Group system where you can choose what your kids get to buy and make the app ask for confirmation from a parent before fulfilling the order.

 

Honestly I wouldn't leave kids with an iPad anyways, I played with Legos and read books when I was a kid, and dammit, my kids will do the same! Well, most of the time. It's fairly easy to not let your kids rack up tons of in app purchases if you aren't stupid about it.

Exactly, they acknowledge an issue and fixed it, it's not like they were blackmailing cute little kittens. They've evolved their product from flawed for family to family oriented.  

 

There are many educational apps on the ipad that are exceptional. As someone who works in education with families I can see easily how the situation arose and got out of control.  But with parents being educated about how to setup the even the older ipads for kids it is awesome. 

[jmaster299]

not true,  in the original ipads the password remains active for all transactions for 15 minutes.  There is already a thread around here that discusses what happened quite thoroughly. What it boiled down to was basically an oversight on apples part. 

 

linustechtips.com/main/topic/102640-apple-to-refund-325m-to-parents-whose-kids-made-in-app-purchases/page-3

I am fully aware of that. So the only way kids could do anything is because the parent put in the password and handed it off to the kid. That is still the parents fault and responsibility. It is not up to Apple to babysit kids. It is lazy parenting. Just like the parents the complain about what's on TV, claiming they don't want their kids to see it. But v-chips have been required in all TVs for more than a decade and every single cable, satellite box and blu-ray player has the ability to password lock content based on rating. 

If a parent is dumb enough to leave a loaded gun sitting around, the parents don't get to sue the gun manufacturer or the company that made the bullet. Parents handing off a device to their kid without the password being active is not Apple's fault. Apple should not be held responsible for bad parenting. When I was a kid I couldn't touch the computer without my parents knowing about it and checking on what I was doing. An iPad or smartphone are nothing but small computers. If the parent is not paying attention to what the kid is doing, and not enforcing strict rules on what the kid is allowed to do, that is bad parenting.

Society has a whole has abandoned responsibility for everything. The call it a Nanny State for a reason. Everyone wants someone else to take responsibility for everything.

"I didn't give a crap about school, so now I'm 27 with 3 kids. The government should take care of me."

"I can't be bothered with password protecting my TV or cable box, so I demand you outlaw all violent or vulgar shows on TV so my kids can't watch them".

"I want to have sex any time I want, but my employer needs to pay for my birth control so I don't get pregnant."

"I'm too lazy to watch my own kids, so Apple should have to pay me because I didn't stop my kid from spending $100 on games."

"Violent video games need to be outlawed because I don't want me kid to play them and I'm too lazy to put up with their whining so I always give in and buy it for them." (XBox and Playstation can block content based on rating too)

"I didn't give a crap about my kid while he was growing up, so he became a criminal. Now the police need to pay me a billion dollars because they shot my innocent boy when he pulled a gun on them."

The list is almost endless.

 

[Builder]

Exactly, they acknowledge an issue and fixed it, it's not like they were blackmailing cute little kittens. They've evolved their product from flawed for family to family oriented.  

 

There are many educational apps on the ipad that are exceptional. As someone who works in education with families I can see easily how the situation arose and got out of control.  But with parents being educated about how to setup the even the older ipads for kids it is awesome. 

I can see too. And while I do place a lot of blame on Apple for it, it's not exactly the kind of thing you can anticipate and they seem to have handled it pretty well in my opinion. Now the whole 2011 MacBook Pro debacle is a different story,2 and I'm very mad at them over it. It's not just becoming a PR nightmare but it's also hurting their image as a company that fixes things when they break to the public.

[mr moose]

I am fully aware of that. So the only way kids could do anything is because the parent put in the password and handed it off to the kid. That is still the parents fault and responsibility. It is not up to Apple to babysit kids. It is lazy parenting. Just like the parents the complain about what's on TV, claiming they don't want their kids to see it. But v-chips have been required in all TVs for more than a decade and every single cable, satellite box and blu-ray player has the ability to password lock content based on rating. 

If a parent is dumb enough to leave a loaded gun sitting around, the parents don't get to sue the gun manufacturer or the company that made the bullet. Parents handing off a device to their kid without the password being active is not Apple's fault. Apple should not be held responsible for bad parenting. When I was a kid I couldn't touch the computer without my parents knowing about it and checking on what I was doing. An iPad or smartphone are nothing but small computers. If the parent is not paying attention to what the kid is doing, and not enforcing strict rules on what the kid is allowed to do, that is bad parenting.

Society has a whole has abandoned responsibility for everything. The call it a Nanny State for a reason. Everyone wants someone else to take responsibility for everything.

"I didn't give a crap about school, so now I'm 27 with 3 kids. The government should take care of me."

"I can't be bothered with password protecting my TV or cable box, so I demand you outlaw all violent or vulgar shows on TV so my kids can't watch them".

"I want to have sex any time I want, but my employer needs to pay for my birth control so I don't get pregnant."

"I'm too lazy to watch my own kids, so Apple should have to pay me because I didn't stop my kid from spending $100 on games."

"Violent video games need to be outlawed because I don't want me kid to play them and I'm too lazy to put up with their whining so I always give in and buy it for them." (XBox and Playstation can block content based on rating too)

"I didn't give a crap about my kid while he was growing up, so he became a criminal. Now the police need to pay me a billion dollars because they shot my innocent boy when he pulled a gun on them."

The list is almost endless.

 

your whole argument rests on labelling parents as ignorant.  There is a difference between being an ignorant parent that doesn't bother to educate themselves and an ill informed parent who's product doesn't perform as promoted.  As I said earlier I work in education and work with quite intelligent people who didn't know about the 15min window because it was not in any of the literature or in any of the terms when parents where setting up their apple accounts.  It is a simple case that parents were ill informed,  That's all.  Trying to blame them for something they were unaware of is erroneous. 

[Victorious Secret]

If MS willingly allows "malicious" apps, then what the fuck is Google doing on their store? Cause the Play Store is a cesspool of pure crap, more than iOS and WP combined. 

[Dr. Strangelove]

100 $ for an app?

 

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/cumulotweetus/72ade68a-f416-4a11-b515-e881255d5261

[jmaster299]

your whole argument rests on labelling parents as ignorant.  There is a difference between being an ignorant parent that doesn't bother to educate themselves and an ill informed parent who's product doesn't perform as promoted.  As I said earlier I work in education and work with quite intelligent people who didn't know about the 15min window because it was not in any of the literature or in any of the terms when parents where setting up their apple accounts.  It is a simple case that parents were ill informed,  That's all.  Trying to blame them for something they were unaware of is erroneous. 

No, it rests on parents being lazy and not knowing what their kids are doing. A child that is so young that they don't know they are doing something wrong should never be left unsupervised with an piece of electronics. Let alone something that costs hundreds of dollars. If the child is old enough to know better, its still the parents fault for both not monitoring the kid and a lack of discipline. Apple did not make the iPhone or the iPad for parents to use them like a babysitter, but that is exactly what the whole lawsuit is about.

I'm not saying the parents has to be looking over the shoulder the whole time. But no kid is racking up hundreds or thousands of dollars with the parent still in the room. Also, the whole issue with the 15 minute password timer in no way applies to every single person involved in this mess. I would be surprised if anything but a small percentage of them actually had an issue with kids buying stuff because they didn't know about the 15 minute password timer. The rest of them are liars, plan and simple.

Yes its good that Apple is doing more to combat this issue. But the only thing I will fault Apple for is not exercising more control over apps intended for children. Its still not Apple's fault when parents are lazy, but passwords asied, they could have prevented the sale of apps for kids that offer hundreds of dollars of in app purchases. Apple was not malicious and negligent in what they did, or failed to do, but those app developers were.

 

If MS willingly allows "malicious" apps, then what the fuck is Google doing on their store? Cause the Play Store is a cesspool of pure crap, more than iOS and WP combined. 

Yes the Google Play store is filled with malicious apps, many that Google won't remove. But the issue here is the big chunk of change MIS is reportedly taking from the sale of these apps.

[mr moose]

No, it rests on parents being lazy and not knowing what their kids are doing. A child that is so young that they don't know they are doing something wrong should never be left unsupervised with an piece of electronics. Let alone something that costs hundreds of dollars. If the child is old enough to know better, its still the parents fault for both not monitoring the kid and a lack of discipline. Apple did not make the iPhone or the iPad for parents to use them like a babysitter, but that is exactly what the whole lawsuit is about.

I'm not saying the parents has to be looking over the shoulder the whole time. But no kid is racking up hundreds or thousands of dollars with the parent still in the room. Also, the whole issue with the 15 minute password timer in no way applies to every single person involved in this mess. I would be surprised if anything but a small percentage of them actually had an issue with kids buying stuff because they didn't know about the 15 minute password timer. The rest of them are liars, plan and simple.

Yes its good that Apple is doing more to combat this issue. But the only thing I will fault Apple for is not exercising more control over apps intended for children. Its still not Apple's fault when parents are lazy, but passwords asied, they could have prevented the sale of apps for kids that offer hundreds of dollars of in app purchases. Apple was not malicious and negligent in what they did, or failed to do, but those app developers were.

 

Yes the Google Play store is filled with malicious apps, many that Google won't remove. But the issue here is the big chunk of change MIS is reportedly taking from the sale of these apps.

 

You'd be surprised how quick a couple hundred dollars worth of in game purchases can be racked up, Remember this issue was back when the ipad was first released, games with in app purchases were relatively new to a lot of people.  When a game is advertised as free and there is no mention of in game costs on the games download page it is not unfair for parents to assume the game is free.  Not everyone is tech savvy and understands software the way we enthusiasts do, I liken the situation to that of any industry that takes advantage of people with little knowledge of how these things work.  Like used car sales people taking advantage of people who know nothing about cars.

[ZeroBreaker]

Bullshit.

Google's app store is by far the most wide and varied, and this isn't just because it gives apps far more access to it's devices than apple or microsoft do (with the right permissions). It's because it allows pretty much any app into it's store, and requires users use something all people should have  - common sense. This has allowed tons of shit onto the google play store, but it's always either away from view (thanks to the tons of legit useful shit) or reported if its bad enough. Anyone can succeed on google play store as a result, and with pretty much anything, be it something like candy crush or something far more unique - tasker, of which apple and microsoft cannot offer an alternative for because of their regulation and strict permissions.

Apple, as always, has it's head in the clouds because it doesn't need to do shit - it's image sells iphones by the bucketload, not it's software or even it's hardware - but microsoft caught on, and recently it's app store on windows has become somewhere where you can always find an app if its within the scope allowed by windows phone. After using windows phone for about a month, I couldn't find a case where an app i needed or even wanted was not available in some form in the windows store.

Microsoft seems to have tried the same strategy on windows 8, but unfortunately no one seems to realise that the app format works for tablets at a stretch, it certainly isn't suitable for PC's, which make up most of windows 8's install base. They simply cannot make the most out of the system in the same way apps on phones and tablets do.

I have a surface pro and use the app store extensively. I can tell you that the bullshit you find on microsofts store is as well hidden and easy to spot as the bullshit on google's store, which can only be complained about by people who cannot distinguish well ( as opposed to cannot put the effort in to distinguish well) between the legit and the dodgy stuff. This includes only challenged people and children, the former should have help when accessing such technology and the latter should not have the access that they do now to this technology.

If people are going to fall for this shit, they should absolutely blame themselves. Microsoft have done something wrong by making it easier to publish apps on their system? (which goes unmentioned, people don't like the fact they have to accept the good and the bad). Of course not. When microsoft opened their marketplace for indie developers, EVERYONE knew what bullshit would come with it, but many indie developers made brilliant games which could not exist or gain the same traction without such a marketplace. Same for android and same for microsoft. Unfortunately apple require a mac to develop properly for iOS which means a much higher cost of entry for the apple app store, often its hard to find proper 'indie' apps and small utilities like the ones available on android because they simply aren't viable with that cost of entry.

Anyways, yeah. This is bullshit sensationalist codswallop.