The Guardian reports that more than 50 apps for Google’s phone operating system have been found to be infected with malware called “Droid Dream,” which can pillage your phone of, basically, everything.

The revelation comes from Android Police, a news site on Google’s operating system, which calls it “the mother of all Android malware”, noting that its examination had found that it “steals nearly everything it can: product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID. But that’s all child’s play; the true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download more code. In other words, there’s no way to know what the app does after it’s installed, and the possibilities are nearly endless.”

This is scary stuff, and it’s one reason why the Apple App Store, for all its flaws, is a much wiser play than Android.

There’s little doubt in my mind that Google is going to have to start curating its apps. As one blogger says, “Android is the new Windows.” And that’s just not something you want to be.