Virus Shield

Everyone's worried about getting a virus, and so that seems to be the reason why, in the Google Play store, the #1 paid app was Virus Shield; it prevents harmful apps from being stored on your device; protects your personal information; and has a strong antivirus signature detection.



And it's so good, even at $3.99, it had been downloaded 10,000 times; had over 2,600 people recommending it, and had a 4.5 star rating.



Amazing, right? No. Turned out the app which was less than 1 megabyte did not – well it didn't do nothing – what it did do was change this X...



...into a check mark.



That's it!

And it has let a good number of people to wonder if the Google Play store can really be trusted. Personally, I had hoped that the community could self moderate with the star system but, whether it be because there are fake accounts giving amazing reviews, or because people perceive that it's working because it's supposed to be preventing malware. It's kind of a rainmaker app: you're scared about malware so you download it, and after sometime you still don't have malware so it must be working. Lol, and all this has led some people to go even a step further, saying that maybe Google Play should have some sort of screening process; a walled-garden of sorts, kind of how Apple does it with iOS.

And, because the app (Virus Shield) is now down, I don't know if the money has gone to the creator of it. So, if Google refunded the people who downloaded it, I think it's beneficial.

And I'd love to know what you think. Do you think it's better what Apple does? Or, how Google does it? Maybe there's even something middle of the road where you start creating apps and then you become verified? I don't know, how do you support, and even promote, creativity without suffocating it with these things you have to go through?

And honestly, I'm on the fence.