Well after back in August Apple reluctantly admitted to the existence of an application “kill switch” on the iPhone 3G, Google openly admits to having one in their Android Market terms of service.

The kill switch feature allows Google, through the carrier, T-Mobile, to send a message disabling any particular application downloaded from the Android Market. The idea here, like in the iPhone’s case, is that there must be a failsafe in case there’s a malicious or otherwise unwanted apps from the phones, thus limiting their damage.

Android may actually need this more than the iPhone, due to the fact that unlike the Apple App Store, there’s no veto pre-application-release, anything goes on the Android Market and that, while generating more freedom for developers, also creates the issue of spyware/viruses and other such nasties infecting the phone.

Even though the Android Market only features free applications, on account of the fact that payment methods for devs have not yet been implemented, Google’s “About Phone” section of the G1, which contains the terms of service, and mentions the kill switch, also says that in the case of paid applications which are withdrawn by this method, it plans to make "reasonable efforts to recover the purchase price of the product ... from the original developer on your behalf," and refund the purchase cost to the user. Failing this, it will divide what it gets among the affected users. Also interesting is the fact that Google states that it will allow for a paid application to be returned for a full refund within 24 hours of purchase. This is effectively Google’s implementation of a trial version.

All these tidbits are very telling, as Google is at least being upfront about it, and is addressing the issue of the customers’ money, which has been a loaded and yet-unanswered question in the case of apps that would be withdrawn by iPhone’s kill switch.