Yesterday Google announced the "Open Handset alliance", which is supposed to offer an open-source mobile phone operating system. Until now they have nothing to show but announcements of a lot of big companies building these alliance. They claim that first phones will be available in second half of 2008.

I doubt that provider such as T-Mobile will allow that platform to be completely open. They have to ensure that such phones interact properly with their mobile network infrastructure and they probably won't allow arbitrary modifications of core parts of the phone.

But the really frightening part is this:

All applications are created equal
Android does not differentiate between the phone's core applications and third-party applications. They can all be built to have equal access to a phone's capabilities providing users with a broad spectrum of applications and services. With devices built on the Android Platform, users will be able to fully tailor the phone to their interests.

All are equal? Where's the security concept? How will they prevent infection with malware when all applications can access everything on the phone? "Android was built from the ground-up [...]". But security is not mentioned anywhere on the website. They built something from scratch and dis not consider security? If they considered it what's the reason for not mentioning it? I suspect they do not have a security concept at all.

And what about this:

For example, a developer can combine information from the web with data on an individual's mobile phone -- such as the user's contacts, calendar, or geographic location -- to provide a more relevant user experience. With Android, a developer could build an application that enables users to view the location of their friends and be alerted when they are in the vicinity giving them a chance to connect.

Or in other words: They will track my location, who I talk to and when. I'll probably get ads depending on my location or depending on the content of emails or SMS I have one the phone.