isie
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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Android rus
- Thread starter d7e7r7
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yep free and no annoying adds even **so far
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kingrob
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Using an anti-virus app on Linux, must be a supernoob. LOL
If an anti-virus app was necessary for an Android phone, then why is it not included in the Google Nexus phones?
I rest my case.
If an anti-virus app was necessary for an Android phone, then why is it not included in the Google Nexus phones?
I rest my case.
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Android (and iOS, for that matter) uses a sandboxed application framework which makes traditional "viruses" impossible.
(There are other forms of malware out there, but they're not as harmful as traditional viruses, plus Google does a pretty good job of keeping it out of the Play Store - so if you never download apps from non-official sources, you shouldn't need any form of malware scanner.)
Avast allows you to delete the "anti-virus" app and keep the anti-theft tracker installed. In fact, it actually works better that way, because you can hide the app from the app drawer and install the package using a custom name, which means that a thief who looks through will never be able see that there's an anti-theft tracker installed.
Or you could dispense with Avast entirely and just use the official Android device manager.
I agree that it is mostly not necessary but by that logic XP didn't need an antivirus either... If you are going to side-load apks from unknown sources I would feel safer with a Antivirus/Anti-malware of some sort.
And you feel safer because an antivirus will work against apps that you installed? False sense of security. But I get it. Windows has conditioned people like you to think a device is incomplete without an antivirus. And they feel safer if they have an antivirus. Call it the placebo effect or something...
So your saying an Android AV cant protect one from malware/infected apps?
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Not if you install them your self. And if you are installing from the play store, Google pulls out all the stuff that is rouge. Making an antivirus redundant. But if an antivirus makes you feel better, then be my quest.
Dude did you read what I said? I said "If you are going to side-load apks from unknown sources I would feel safer...". (the Play Sore = known/trusted source)
And no I don't have a av currently because I mostly install from trusted sources. But when I did have one installed it was mainly used for the other security features like tracking/firewall etc.
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Yes I read. No anti virus will protect you if you install a virus leaden app. So your "feeling safer" is exactly what I said, false sense of security.
But an av can scan and detect a virus leaden apk before you install it right? How is that a false sense of security?
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Except av scans against a database of previously known viruses. Something that Android already does. If it is a new virus, av will miss it until the database is updated.
I am not aware of that, care to link to a source?
But if that is the case there is another problem - how often is your Android OS updated with the latest virus DB?
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/2812853?hl=en I am sure Google knows Adroid more than Avast
Interesting thanks. Seems it checks the app against a DB at google - would be interesting to see what happens when your data connection is not enabled while installing an app. -How would it sent the info to google before giving the go ahead...
It also doesn't upload the app to Google for scanning, I wonder how it manages to determine if an app has hidden malicious content.