Google has used a “kill switch” to clean up phones hit by rogue Android applications.

Almost 60 malware-infected programmes were found on the Android Market on 1 March and estimates suggest they may have been downloaded by 200,000 users.

The malicious apps hid data-stealing code inside games, utilities and other programs.

The “kill switch” allows Google to remotely uninstall software from handsets running its operating system.

58 malicious applications were removed from the Android Market by Google soon after it was alerted to their presence.

It suspended the accounts of the developers who apparently uploaded the apps, and also contacted the police.

In a blog posting, Google said it had activated the remote application removal following an internal investigation.

The company plans to push out a security update, designed to close the loopholes that the malicious applications took advantage of.

It is not clear when this will arrive on handsets, as in many cases the timing will be under the control of mobile operators rather than Google.

The malicious code inside the applications used vulnerabilities in early versions of Android’s operating system to view and steal key information such as a phone’s unique ID number.

It also opened a backdoor onto the phone which would have allowed attackers to install any code they wanted.

Google’s action will not entirely remove the threat from the Android ecosystem.

This is because the malicious apps have been found on several unofficial versions of the Android marketplace where many more users may have downloaded and installed them.

According to eurodroid, an helpful website, Google’s Mobile blog has put up a thorough response to last week’s malware skirmish, confirming that a number of apps were removed with their developers having their publishing privileges suspended.

 The attack apparently targeted “known vulnerabilities” which exist in Android versions lower than 2.2.2. Here’s the site’s checklist of damage limitation:

We removed the malicious applications from Android Market, suspended the associated developer accounts, and contacted law enforcement about the attack.

We are remotely removing the malicious applications from affected devices. This remote application removal feature is one of many security controls the Android team can use to help protect users from malicious applications.

We are pushing an Android Market security update to all affected devices that undoes the exploits to prevent the attacker(s) from accessing any more information from affected devices. If your device has been affected, you will receive an email from android-market-support@google.com over the next 72 hours. You will also receive a notification on your device that “Android Market Security Tool March 2011” has been installed. You may also receive notification(s) on your device that an application has been removed. You are not required to take any action from there; the update will automatically undo the exploit. Within 24 hours of the exploit being undone, you will receive a second email.

We are adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market and are working with our partners to provide the fix for the underlying security issues.

Google also says the only data the “hackers” were able to access was the IMEI identification number of the phones and the version of Android they were running. Neither of which are much use in isolation.

The weekend is here, and it is time to celebrate. Here is the short list of items you might be interested in checking out if you crave even more Android news!

“Share This Application” is on Android Market Now

Honeycomb Statue Arrives At Google’s Headquarters

Android Will Likely Be Getting A Blackberry Messenger App

The Samsung Galaxy S II is available for pre-order in Australia and should be available in April.

Android Will Likely Be Getting A Blackberry Messenger App

Sarah Harding will promote the Incredible S in the UK.

The Samsung Galaxy Player sold 20,000 units in South Korea

Amazon has discounted the Motorola Atrix 4G another $20 – it’s now $129.99.

Do you have any other useful and valuable news? Then you can share with us.

If  you go to Google’s Headquarters, you are sure to be very excited to see the Honeycomb Statue has already standing there. It took a little while longer, yet Android 3.0 has finally joined the ranks of Androids past.

Pretty cool, isn’t it?

Nexus S devices are currently being upgraded to the Android 2.3.3 platform version, which brings forth a nice range of changes, including better NFC capabilities, but also some changes that might not be approved by all users, including disabled contact syncing in Facebook for Android.

Google said it is because Facebook never used Android’s Contacts API, meaning synced data was not portable from device to device, service to service.

“We believe it is very important that users are able to control their data. So in the over-the-air update for Nexus S, we have a small change to how Facebook contacts appear on the device”

“For Nexus S users who downloaded the Facebook app from Android Market, Facebook contacts will no longer appear to be integrated with the Android Contacts app. ”

“Since Facebook contacts cannot be exported from the device, the appearance of integration created a false sense of data portability”

“Facebook contact data will continue to appear within the Facebook app. Like all developers on Android, Facebook is free to use the Android contacts API to truly integrate contacts on the device, which would allow users to have more control over their data. We are removing the special-case handling of Facebook contacts on Nexus S and future lead devices”

“We continue to believe that reciprocity (the expectation that if information can be imported into a service it should be able to be exported) is an important step toward creating a world of true data liberation and encourage other websites and app developers to allow users to export their contacts as well”

Good news is Google isn’t disabling the functionality in the Nexus One version of the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update since the Facebook app for the Nexus One was baked in to the stock software. Google says they don’t want to remove a feature that users were already expecting to be available.