I never expected pine to upload my contact list (or email) to some third party server - or BitchX to steal my chat logs. Yet both programs could have done so.

I never expected pine to upload my contact list (or email) to some third party server - or BitchX to steal my chat logs. Yet both programs could have done so. The difference is that before Android, in the world of windows - we already had a culture of spyware bundled with freeware - as well as viruses/RATs - and plain malicious software - that made it plain that simply allowing random code to execute in a context where it could read data and/or sensors (gps,mic,camera etc) would be a disaster. There were to workarounds: stewardship (the Linux distro model, like software in debian main etc) or sandboxing. Android chose too little of each, which essentially amounted to a false sense of security. And here we are.