Fullt av fraudulent apper in the Windows Store – digi.no

The range of applications available for Windows 8 and RT via Windows Store is constantly growing. Like other operators offering application marketplaces, the number of available applications a number Microsoft likes to emphasize. But the figure says nothing about the quality of apps offered.

The website How-To-Geek has done some basic searches in Windows Store for known and beloved applications. The result is discouraging. The results present amount of effort to get users to pay for completely useless applications that exploit the names of the applications. Some of the original applications discussed, offered in the Windows Store. Others, such as iTunes, offered whatsoever.

How-To-Geek is merciful and calls the Windows Store for a “Cesspool of Scams” and ask why Microsoft does this. The website also comes with some potential answers to this question

Windows Store is far from alone in distributing søppelapper. There are many players who gladly distribute svindelapper as long as they can make money on it. The special feature of this case is that the applications in the Windows Store has actually been approved by Microsoft before publication. This page explains what Microsoft certification requirements for applications. Apparently, fraud and trademark theft not factors that will prevent apps from being published.

How-To-Geek performed basically a search for the widely used media player, VLC, which is available in the Modern UI version of Windows Store. However, such a search today gives 203 hits.

VLC published by the VideoLAN non-profit organization and has always been offered free. It also applies to the version of Windows Store, called VLC for Windows 8

Almost all the other applications that contain VLC in the name, however, costs money. Some are difficult to separate from the official version, except the price and the publisher. Others appear as VLC with more or less obscure additional functionality, while a third category are serious extensions or companion applications to VLC. What’s what, is not always easy to distinguish.

The perhaps worst examples are still applications that have names that strongly resembles the original, but for cash only offers the user a link to download the free edition. Up to 23 million must pay for this.

Applications in all of these categories are shown on the first page when searching for VLC.

How-To-Geek reports that it has in the Windows Store for known applications and games such as Adobe Flash Player, Firefox, Pandora, IMDB, Candy Crush Saga, Wechat, WhatsApp, uTorrent, Picasa, Bluestacks, Minecraft, Spotify, Google Hangouts, Picasa, Clash of Clans and Blender 3D.

In many cases, the official logos, most likely without the permission of the owners thereof.

It is quite possible and quite easy to notify Microsoft about such cases. Copyright infringement is among the categories mentioned in the warning dialog. The extent to which this is being done, and whether Microsoft will take complaints to follow is unclear. The wide range of such svindelapper suggests that at least some of this is not done adequately.

One of the purpose of the Windows Store, is that it should be a safe place to buy and download apps from. But this presupposes that one can have confidence that Microsoft does not allow trickery and fraud through.

In the other major
The same applies of course also for other application marketplaces that promise preflight. But there is little evidence that such Apple does not have good control over this in the App Store for both iOS and OS X.

Even Google Play, which does not bode any prior approval of apps, it is far between the obvious scams. Seeking for example by VLC, you get no obvious scam among the first 45 matches. Most of the relevant matches is about free additional functionality. The app is called Dragon VLC Video Player Pro, released by an unknown developer, and so costs more than 60 dollars, we are however more skeptical – not least because it claims Google Play that it is annonsefri and iPhone and iPad . According VideoLAN VLC annonsefri initially.

VLC is a registered trademark, and VideoLAN writes that trademark only gets used for redistribution in accordance with the GPL. All other rights to use the trademark must be provided by VideoLAN beforehand. There are undoubtedly cases of violation of this among the applications offered via Google Play.

A consequence of such infringement on trademarks is that you as a user may be misled into believing that an application is published by or with support from the owner of the trademark you know. In Google Play it appears quite clearly – even in search results – who has released each application. But it is still too easy for many to overlook this.