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Market not password protected?

Catfish

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2010
127
2
home.beardeddonkey.com
Pardon the French but why the heck doesn't the Market have a password protection system on it? Practically everytime my kid gets the phone she buys something. Why don't Google just put a mofoing password on it like Apple does with the iStore?

Kinda makes sense doesn't it? Or is it just me?

I've tried some app locking programs but they don't cut it. They can't protect every way of purchasing things (like through apps themselves) and generally fail to protect Market as a whole.

The only sure fire fix to it is to remove your credit card details via Google Checkout after you've made a purchase, then re-enter them everytime you buy something. Tedious and annoying.

Wise up Google. We don't all make billions a week.
 
To log in to the marketplace, you have to have an account (with password) that's already entered to your phone. You can certainly password protect your phone to make sure your daughter doesn't play with it when you're not around.

I agree. The password is already entered, I don't want to have to enter it again every time I want to browse or purchase an app.

The phone itself has a lock on it, use it to keep your child from using the device, or use launcher pro and hide the market app.
 
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Pardon the French but why the heck doesn't the Market have a password protection system on it? Practically everytime my kid gets the phone she buys something. Why don't Google just put a mofoing password on it like Apple does with the iStore?

Kinda makes sense doesn't it? Or is it just me?

I've tried some app locking programs but they don't cut it. They can't protect every way of purchasing things (like through apps themselves) and generally fail to protect Market as a whole.

The only sure fire fix to it is to remove your credit card details via Google Checkout after you've made a purchase, then re-enter them everytime you buy something. Tedious and annoying.

Wise up Google. We don't all make billions a week.


I stand with you on this one. I think it's a stupid idea to not have a password protected app. Look,.kids are kids. you can try to teach them. But there's no guarantee it will work. Also, why shouldn't I lend my phone to my kids? When I was small I used to steal my old man's nokia to play snake on it. I had a great blast, so why should I deprive my children if the same experience?

As for those who don't like entering the password every single time, couldn't Google just make it optional like the lockscreen? I hate password lockscreen, but you don't see me whining that Google should remove it just because I don't like it.
 
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I stand with you on this one. I think it's a stupid idea to not have a password protected app. Look,.kids are kids. you can try to teach them. But there's no guarantee it will work. Also, why shouldn't I lend my phone to my kids? When I was small I used to steal my old man's nokia to play snake on it. I had a great blast, so why should I deprive my children if the same experience?

As for those who don't like entering the password every single time, couldn't Google just make it optional like the lockscreen? I hate password lockscreen, but you don't see me whining that Google should remove it just because I don't like it.

I'm fine with it if it is completely optional and is opt-in, but as for the rest of your statement, I'm really tired of parents putting their responsibilities onto companies and the government. This is happening way too often. You know what happened when I used my mom's credit card to buy something when I was a kid? I got punished. I know it's an amazing concept, but it has worked for centuries to keep children in line.
 
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I give my phone and my tablet to my nieces all the time to play with. I've never had the problem. I use App Locker to restrict access to the market. They can't get in and buy stuff if they wanted to. If they did, they'd be punished for it by either me or my sister and would not be likely to repeat the mistake.
 
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From a development perspective, to add the options discussed here, it would be a small thing for Google to do. It is a verification when users try to purchase something. I don't know any system (besides handing over cash) where you can buy something from a previously untrusted source without having to verify the payment somehow.

Cheque: Signature is required. You could say the signature is like the password on the Google account but it's not. A signature on a cheque is like a password that is typed in _every time_ a payment has to be made. The signature on the cheque account application form is like the Google account password.
EFTPOS/ATM: The PIN must be entered _every time_ a payment is made, even if you have a license with the same signature as is on the card doesn't mean you can take money from the account. You need to enter the PIN.
NetBank: Whenever I make payment to a new source either my netbank password must be entered or an SMS code entered. And yes, I must enter my netbank password to get into netbank, and then enter it again _every time_ a payment is made. (Sounds like what Google's missing here)
Online credit card: You need to enter the security code on the back of the card to allow the payment and usually this is _every time_ you make a payment unless you let a trusted third party handle your credit card details (like paypal) and then still you have to enter a password usually to allow the payment!

I don't think most people see the laziness on Google's part here. Unless they purposely do it to increase sales? (why was the refund policy dropped from 24 hours to 15 minutes?)


I am going to mostly ignore the comments about giving kids phones and how to raise your children because the topic is such a grey area and there's too many factors to even go into it and it's not really what this thread is about. However, I see educational value in allowing my young child to use my android device. For instance, I want my children to try to learn more languages than English. This can be done to some extent by letting them watch their favourite shows in other languages. Yes I do worry about my phone getting broken but to be honest I am very suprised how careful she is with all of her/our possessions and I haven't seen her do anything for me to decide she shouldn't use it for fear of it being broken.
 
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I stand with you on this one. I think it's a stupid idea to not have a password protected app. Look,.kids are kids. you can try to teach them. But there's no guarantee it will work. Also, why shouldn't I lend my phone to my kids? When I was small I used to steal my old man's nokia to play snake on it. I had a great blast, so why should I deprive my children if the same experience?

As for those who don't like entering the password every single time, couldn't Google just make it optional like the lockscreen? I hate password lockscreen, but you don't see me whining that Google should remove it just because I don't like it.

Because they're not playing snake, they're buying stuff.
 
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While I would agree with your statement to a point, the OP's post is really about kids and phones. (I know is about the password system)

His/her post leads me to believe that this a more than occasional occurrence. They also allude to the fact that money is hard earned.

Your kids shouldn't be playing with your expensive phone, its not a toy. You have to take some personal responsibility for leaving it in a place that your child has ready access.

It would be a handy function to offer as a option, but Google shouldn't have to.

Just my 2 cents. Take it for whats its worth
This, don't let your kid play with your smart phone, or just tell them not to buy anything, if there smart enough to know how to work a smart phone, then they are smart enough to listen to you when you tell them not to buy stuff.
 
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that feature is an option. therefore, google should consider additionally locking down the more sensitive functions of the phone. it's not just the market. what if someone steals or sneaks into a phone and gains access to your emails? lots of sensitive data in there. do you know what someone needs to ring up your bank and get into your account? your name, your address, you account number and your date of birth. most of that info could be gotten from your phone and the rest of can even be given out freely.

people need to stop burying their heads in the sand and start asking how big the security holes are.
 
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that feature is an option. therefore, google should consider additionally locking down the more sensitive functions of the phone. it's not just the market. what if someone steals or sneaks into a phone and gains access to your emails? lots of sensitive data in there. do you know what someone needs to ring up your bank and get into your account? your name, your address, you account number and your date of birth. most of that info could be gotten from your phone and the rest of can even be given out freely.

people need to stop burying their heads in the sand and start asking how big the security holes are.

What if I get my hands on your wallet and buy stuff with your credit card, write fake checks in your name and use your driver's license to pretend I'm you. Huge security hole there.
 
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yeah but here's the thing. i dont care if people can get into my phone. i only care if they can get into my email, and spend my money on the market. there's nothing else in my phone that is sensitive except those two things.

google should recognize these things as i'm sure i'm not the only person on the entire planet like this and add options to protect the sensitive areas.
 
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yeah but here's the thing. i dont care if people can get into my phone. i only care if they can get into my email, and spend my money on the market. there's nothing else in my phone that is sensitive except those two things.

google should recognize these things as i'm sure i'm not the only person on the entire planet like this and add options to protect the sensitive areas.

Like I said earlier, I can do the exact same thing if I get my mitts on your wallet.
 
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Hi there. :mad:

I think some of you have forgotten we have rules around here. One is to not use or even imply that kind of French - posts have been edited.

But here's the deal - :mad:

While it's popular on the internet to anonymously tell people that what's wrong with society is that the other guy isn't raising his or her kids right, in truth that's about the most impolite thing you can do.

It is none of your business to tell someone whether their kid should be using their phone. It's morally wrong - and it's downright impolite, and if my boss has a Prime Directive for this site, it's this: Please be polite.

I've raised 3 kids and am working on 6 grandkids - and all of you parents know what some stranger (or even family member) gets when they tell you how to raise your kids.

And if you don't have kids, then remember when you were one, think of all the crap you got away with when you were younger and then do a little soul searching before telling someone to take personal responsibility, and ask how your own dad would have liked that advice.

NOW -

I'm in a good mood. Therefore, you're getting off with this public warning. I've banned people for persisting in this behavior and the bans have been upheld - so stop it.

OP - if you want Google to consider this as an optional feature, contact them.

Meanwhile - this is Android, where choice is good.

Your choice on how to deal with your kid is supported the Android way - with an app.

Please note well this post:


I give my phone and my tablet to my nieces all the time to play with. I've never had the problem. I use App Locker to restrict access to the market. They can't get in and buy stuff if they wanted to.

Please go to the Market on the web and do a search for app locker and also please do one for parental controls - you'll find what you need and more to assist you.

I can't advise on what to do about in-app purchases other than to restrict access to those apps as well at present.
 
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Today my daughter did a non-refundable in-app purchase using app Bakery Story worth almost $80... :-( I recently switched to Android from an iPhone. In the iPhone there is a password protection for all purchases (app store or in-app) and I never worried so I was caught off guard and now I find out that Android doesn't provide this easy level of security... :-/

Anyway, I have just removed my credit card from my market profile and am putting my Samsung Galaxy i9000 on eBay and I'm back to iPhone soon... :-/
 
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Today my daughter did a non-refundable in-app purchase using app Bakery Story worth almost $80... :-( I recently switched to Android from an iPhone. In the iPhone there is a password protection for all purchases (app store or in-app) and I never worried so I was caught off guard and now I find out that Android doesn't provide this easy level of security... :-/

Anyway, I have just removed my credit card from my market profile and am putting my Samsung Galaxy i9000 on eBay and I'm back to iPhone soon... :-/

I would email the developers to see if you can get your money back with a sob story.
 
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It's my phone and that's it. The kids shouldn't play with it. If they do, just hide the market app or beat the sh** out of them.

This is a techno-social matter that should have been resolved by Google for more than long and if it hasn't been addressed for so long then I don't think it will ever be; hence my decision to go back to Apple. So, if you have no constructive technical solution to the problem that I and so many other parents are facing then I believe it would be wiser to just not contribute with comments that are not relevant. This, especially when you didn't even realize that in-app purchases have nothing to do with the market app itself and blocking it wouldn't add any value.

But last night I was thinking of this again and I have a couple of questions and a possible solution... Does anyone know how the in-app purchases internals work? They probably need to connect to server market.android.com (or other market servers). Maybe an application to tweak the hosts file in the Android system would be an option to resolve this problem in a easy way. This app, which would be password blocked would just add a line in the hosts file to make this server name to point to IP address 127.0.0.1 to block access to the market, or remove it to grant access again. Any takers? I'm sure an experienced developer would take less than one hour do develop such thing provided all market server names are known. The result would not be very clean as any in-app purchase would break and maybe some of them would not be prepared to handle it but then again... It would be better than throwing money out the window.

Still for janpetras: Your phone is your phone and my phone is my phone. Your situation is your situation and my situation is my situation. If you have any children, then your offspring is your offspring and mine is mine. This to say that I bought an advanced phone for, it seems, very different reasons than you. I do want my daughter to play with it but only when I am around. And I hope I was intelligent enough to assume this is entirely my responsibility and that my daughter, who doesn't even speak English and is only 7 years old, wasn't at fault by any means. Afterwards I did explain the situation to her in a constructive way and guess what, she felt guilty and started crying and for me that is enough. You can go and beat whatever crap out of yours if you so wish. I'm sure they will love you for it.

Fabr
 
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