I didn't want to pull my previous, related thread, off in a whole new direction, so...

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
So why are you dumping Android for Eyefone?

I've many reasons, smschulz, but, the precipitating reason is I've lost faith in the system keeping my data reasonably secure.

It's long been a dirty little not-so-secret that the Android system, not unlike a certain very popular desktop system , is riddled with vulnerabilities. It's also known this is exacerbated by Android manufacturers and wireless carriers being slow to push security updates. (Sometimes never.) So even if/when Google does plug holes, many customers see the fixes very slowly--if ever. In this respect, Android makes MS-Windows, or even Adobe's Flash, look positively good, by comparison.

I've known this all along, and it's been mildly concerning, but, I figured I was relatively safe, because I never side-load and I stick to well-reviewed, "reputable" apps.

Turns out that isn't enough. Consider:

FalseGuide malware dupes 600,000 Android users into joining botnet

Beware! New Android Malware Infected 2 Million Google Play Store Users

There've been other such incidents, on much smaller scales.

Then there's this: Google Won’t Fix a Flaw Used by 74% of Ransomware Until the Release of Android O

All this got real personal, lately. My wife's Google account was compromised three times within the last few months. Twice within about a one-week period. That third compromise confirmed what I'd suspected: It had to be either her phone or her tablet were compromised. She's a careful user. Doesn't even know how to side-load. (Though she's smart enough to figure it out, if she'd been so-inclined.) So whatever it was had to have come from the Play Store.

I now place Android in the same category as Microsoft Windows, most all Microsoft Applications, essentially anything from Adobe, and the Java Runtime Environment: Not Safe. Do Not Use.

iOS, on the other hand, is widely regarded as the most secure operating system ever made. One tech. article I read asserted that there's not been a single confirmed instance of a non-jail-broken iOS compromise since its inception.

So Android's out the door as fast as I can make it happen. After my iPhone 6S arrives tomorrow, we'll be down to one Android device, and my goal is to convince my wife to give that up, too.