I'm moving from iOS to Android, how secure is the Android environment?

I don’t know if this is any different on iOS, and it depends on your carrier.

But make sure you know how to remotely disable your phone if it is lost/stolen.

When it happened to me, AT&T said “gee, we could help you if you were paying the extra monthly convenience (AKA extortion) fee, but otherwise we just cannot prevent someone from using that phone. Unpossible! You better buy a new phone from AT&T!”

At least in Android, changing my Google password locked other users out of Gmail, Google Voice, Calendar, Contacts, etc. Which is handy if you lose your phone.

But I could not get the phone turned off. That was an AT&T problem, not an Android problem.

In the end some guy found and returned my phone and refused the $50 reward, nice!

PC Magazine, How to Remotely Disable Your Lost or Stolen Phone

I have not updated my OS in quite a while; not since Gingerbread hit the Droid X. However, I have Lookout, a free app that can locate, disable, and/or wipe a lost/stolen phone, which updates about daily. OS updates really are not necessary if you have intermediate software (like Lookout) that can plug the holes.

Also, the default Android has a lock screen that the FBI cannot crack.

Get Lookout, and you should be fine.

What about viruses? How easy is it to get my phone (GS3) infected?

I’ve never had a virus on my android, and I often download applications not from google play.
If you’re worried about viruses, there are anti virus apps, but I think they are more of a gimmick tbh.

I wouldn’t worry about viruses. You rarely hear of them.

Viruses on anything based on UNIX (including Linux, Android (a Linux derivative), OS X, or iOS (an OS X derivative) are tricky to have survive, most especially Linux which, at any given second has at least hundreds of gurus who have nothing better to do than notice any little thing go wrong and release a patch for it quicker than any commercial entity could even become aware of any issues.

Trojans are a different beast entirely, but there is no solving those as that is a wetware issue; educating the operator is the only way to prevent self-infection.

There is no safe market.

I have a buddy who is anti-Apple. He runs Linux, Windows and oh, Hackintosh. He loves open source and I don’t blame him. If you’re an artist or software junkie, open source is like your best friend. With that being said, there is so much junk and other predators taking advantage of how easy it is to install trojans and hack info off your computer. So my buddy recently got his bank account hacked into and money was used etc. Oh, him and his mother actually. Both of their accounts. However with that being said, the bank did refund etc.

iOS was recently hacked into, and the hackers won a prize. So don’t think anything is hack proof. Because there’s always some next level tech savvy junkie who gets off by breaking into someones system.

So onto advice. Make sure to quit each application after using. You don’t really need them tracing you by satellite every single step of your life do ya? It’s a bit different than turning an app off on iOS. With my old Android phone I had to go into settings, apps, and then from there I had my list and had to manually turn them off. Also had the right to delete info collected from the app. (I haven’t figured this out yet on iOS)

@_Whitetigress Safety is relative. But having a good Task-killer is a good idea; our saves you digging spoons the Settings menu.

Also, I am not sure is newer versions of iOS give you the same sort of permissions list that Android does, but get used to checking to see what functions each app wants access to before installing. Many trojans request permissions that the app had no legitimate need for. Learning to decipher those helps. Just be aware that anything ad-supported generally has a need for full internet access, regardless of it’s function.

As long as you only download from the google play store and popular applications, you’ll be fine. Unlike iOS, Android will tell you the kind of things each app wants access to on the description page.

Viruses are possible on any platform, but unless you’re intentionally going into seedy places with your phone, you should be fine. There are antivirus apps on the market though. I use Avast because it’s free and what i use on my desktop.

App updates can be handled automatically or manually, and you can specify per application how you want them to update. That can be configured from the My Apps section of the google store.

OS updates however suck. While apple controls the entire process for iOS updates, Android phones have a lot of hurdles. Google may push out an OS update, but then the phone maker needs to tweak it to work with their phones, and then you have to get approval from the phone carriers who then want to test it themselves and load their crapware into it before even thinking of giving it to consumers.

The Galaxy SIII is Samsung’s flagship phone and it’s not even getting the most current Jelly Bean until Q1 2013.