14 DAY TRIAL // Many Android supporters took issue with the latest HTC G2 smartphone from T-Mobile, which kills root access on every reboot, but the mobile operator claims the behavior is the side effect of a security feature.
The fact that an Android-based phone contains an "unroot" feature, which foils jailbreaks, has generated quite a controversy, since openness and freedom have been some of the mobile platform's selling points.
"The HTC software implementation on the G2 stores some components in read-only memory as a security measure to prevent key operating system software from becoming corrupted and rendering the device inoperable.
"There is a small subset of highly technical users who may want to modify and re-engineer their devices at the code level, known as 'rooting,' but a side effect of HTC’s security measure is that these modifications are temporary and cannot be saved to permanent memory," a T-Mobile spokesperson told Androinica.
Obtaining "root," the highest privilege on an operating system, is one of the steps required to jailbreak devices, the practice of making low-level changes that are not specifically authorized by the manufacturers.
The term is more widely used in connected to closed platforms like Apple's iOS, or Sony's PlayStation, where only applications pre-approved by the vendors can be installed.
However, the Linux-based Android is different by design. It's supposed to be an open platform, where users can run code signed by themselves.
The right of doing whatever one wants on a hardware device they bought has long been advocated by some people, leading to a constant cat and mouse game of jailbreak – unjailbreak with vendors.
In July this year, US regulators have officially recognized this freedom by adding an exemption for iPhone jailbreaking to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), therefore making the practice legal.
As far as the security aspect goes, experts do agree that jailbreaking comes with certain risks and that it might not be a good thing to have the practice widespread, as it could allow hackers to create mobile botnets.