Microsoft, Yet Again, Needs to Clean Up the Windows Store
It seems like once or twice a year Paul or I end up writing a story or two about how Microsoft’s Windows Store is filled with junk that is either trying to scam you out of some money or is littered with fake apps pretending to be something else.
While the Windows Store is headed in the right direction with new apps like Newton Mail, Spotify and eventually iTunes, there is still a bunch of junk in the store. Specifically, there are apps that allow you to pirate content such as movies and TV shows.
Uncovered by Torrent Freak, they have found a long list of apps that do not hide their intentions. Many boast the ability to stream the latest Hollywood movies for free and if that’s not bad enough, some services appear to be using Microsoft’s own ad platform to create pre-roll ads on these pirated movies.
The Windows Store is promoted as being the place to obtain trusted applications that are safe for the end user. While these apps may not be viruses or malware, they are clearly providing illegal content which could get the end-user into serious trouble.
Microsoft reviews apps before allowing them into its store which means that all these pirated apps currently have Microsoft’s blessing to be used by consumers. I fully expect Microsoft to remove these apps in the near future but they have highlighted a vulnerability in Microsoft’s review process; they only check how the app operates in relation to the OS not what it’s actually allowing the end user to do.
The last time an issue with the Store popped up, it was because there were dozens of fake “Chrome” browser apps. A quick search shows that all these apps are gone which highlights that Microsoft can make a change to its review policies that are effective and I expect them to do the same here with the pirate apps.
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Conversation 44 comments
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Pargon
Premium Member<blockquote><a href="#167995"><em>In reply to skborders:</em></a></blockquote><p>They are all filled with junk apps, it's just that Microsoft doesn't have the real thing….and when windows users search for them….not on phone, cause we all know no one uses windows phone, they are more easily duped into the junk app…thinking that surely WINDOWS with it's 500M users has the real app. It's because the real apps everyone else is talking about are not available on windows store. As a windows 7 and 8 phone user for many years, any app I had heard someone talking about at work had many "junk" apps or unofficial apps that access the servers of the original, like snapchat, and got shutdown. </p><p><br></p><p>They tend to use the same logos or slightly different with a very similar name. Even now that I'm on Android I'm always weary of any new app someone mentions, I lookup the company name to verify the app I'm about to download is the original, not a fake duplicate trying to steal data / calendar / e-mail / social / photo access. </p><p><br></p><p>But it's pervasive to windows…because the original isn't at the top of the list….usually. Not so with Android, or I presume iPhone.</p>
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skane2600
<p>This suggests that MS merely claims to review apps rather than actually doing so in all cases. Otherwise how could these apps ever make their way into the store in the first place?</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#167997"><em>In reply to Darmok N Jalad:</em></a></blockquote><p>After reading the instructions for "bridging" Win32 apps, I certainly wouldn't describe the process as "easy" but I guess that's a subjective conclusion.</p>
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skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#168017"><em>In reply to Darmok N Jalad:</em></a></blockquote><p>Yes, that's what I thought you meant – that MS made it sound easy.</p>
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dontbe evil
<p>funny that you never talk about even bigger problems on your favourite play store</p>
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dontbe evil
<blockquote><a href="#168027"><em>In reply to MikeCerm:</em></a></blockquote><p>looks like I cannot post links, just search: "google playstore malware"</p>
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dontbe evil
<blockquote><a href="#168115"><em>In reply to Marius_Muntean:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>sorry if I hurted you pointing out the evidence on your beloved god scroogle</p>