This long thread brings up a good point: Free apps aren't really free. You are implicitly paying for the app using the internet by its use of ads. A number of articles recently touch on this, but I'm not sure if any of them have been really published yet, if you'd like me to keep you informed I can certainly try to do so.
There are a number of ways to detect if apps use ads, but the problem is fundamentally with what your definition of "ads" is. If you mean, does the app use AdMob / MobiClix / etc..., then yes, it's easy to take an off the shelf system and check if those classes are being used in an app. You can also perform dynamic analysis and look at the set of domains that an app accesses, and probably infer which ones are being used for ads. An ad could be something as simple as a bit of text someone pays you to put in your app (statically), and if this is the case there's probably no simple way of knowing if an app uses ads. One of our papers (for full disclosure I'm one of the authors) considers a permissions model where we allow an 'ads' permission [1], but the analysis is simply based on AdMob (and other types of advertiser libraries). Kris [1] Dr. Android and Mr. Hide: Fine-grained security policies on unmodified Android, http://www.cs.umd.edu/~jfoster/papers/acplib.pdf On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 2:53 PM, Justin Anderson <magouyaw...@gmail.com> wrote: > No it is not. Usually and always are completely different. Your answer was > completely useless and a waste of the OP's time. I'm done arguing with you. > > > Thanks, > Justin Anderson > MagouyaWare Developer > http://sites.google.com/site/magouyaware > > > On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 12:49 PM, Fred Rischter <fredrisch...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> Yes, it is correct. Free apps usually install adware. >> >> >> 2012/3/12 Justin Anderson <magouyaw...@gmail.com> >>> >>> People ask questions on here because they are looking for help... Your >>> "answer" was not help in any way shape or form. >>> >>> I have been accused of this in the past, but I have only answered with >>> sarcastic or otherwise non-helpful posts for questions that are not well >>> thought out... This question was perfectly reasonable. I don't have an >>> answer for it, but your answer was, simply put, wrong. >>> >>> >>> > Do you accept only decisive direct solving-your-problem answers? >>> No, but I would expect answers to be correct. Yours was not. >>> >>> >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Justin Anderson >>> MagouyaWare Developer >>> http://sites.google.com/site/magouyaware >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Fred Rischter <fredrisch...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Because I wanted to :) >>>> >>>> Do you accept only decisive direct solving-your-problem answers? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> 2012/3/12 Nadeem Hasan <nha...@nadmm.com> >>>>> >>>>> Why are you answering if you don't have an answer? >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>>> Groups "Android Developers" group. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to >>>>> android-developers@googlegroups.com >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>>> android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>>> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Android Developers" group. >>>> To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com >>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>>> android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>>> For more options, visit this group at >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Android Developers" group. >>> To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com >>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >>> android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >>> For more options, visit this group at >>> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups "Android Developers" group. >> To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
