please guys.. are apps on the marketplace "safe"

[droid99999]

Understand who the source is, but its only a matter of time.

Kaspersky: Beware Malicious Android Programs In 2010 | Android Phone Fans

 

[KlaymenDK]

If android is as open as its meant to be, id guess there are some risks. I'd trust the iphone app store completely but i think android needs a bit of caution?

I worry more about if apps are screened for skimming passwords and such. For instance, if someone writes an app that lets people manage wordpress blogs (and they already exist), how do we know that app isn't sending my blog admin password to some shmuck in Russia?

The Android OS itself is open source, but the platform it presents is not very open -- for instance, an app cannot access the data of another app unless the other app was designed for it. This means that your "app A" data is safe from tampering by any potential malicious "app B", but unfortunately it is also why you can't make a decent system-wide search query, or a proper full backup of your device (including system settings and so on). By comparison, the PalmOS was wide open to anything, you just needed to know (or guess or hack) the database format and you had full access -- and I don't believe I've ever heard of a PalmOS virus. But I guess there is always the possibility of a malicious app that will delete your photos and other such files that reside in "unprotected" storage.

Furthermore, the reviewers cannot be sure that there are no hidden traps in an app. They could decompile it and peek around (which I suppose they do), but to make absolutely sure they would have to examine the full source code and use that to compile the actual executable that would be made available to the public; but that would mean that all apps were signed by the reviewers, not the developers (an impose a huge burden on reviewers). Note that this applies to the Android Market as well as the iPhone appstore. Specifically for Android, since we are (thankfully) able to freely pass APK files around, there will never be a total guarantee. Still, I'm not worried one bit; but as a basic precaution you should always cast a critical glance at the author's site and the app's existing reviews.