Although the controversy of a kill switch started in the days following the launch of the android based phone G1 from Google, it originated from the iPhone. Jonathan Zdziarski, an independent iPhone developer recently came across a secret line of code in the iPhone.

The code is a kill switch in iPhone’s operating system and is there to kill third party applications that run on an iPhone This is done to avoid malware and other harmful applications from running on the iPhone. Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc., insisted it was precautionary rather than a function.

With the launch of G1 from Google, things have moved far off with the detection of a kill switch in it as well. With companies deciding for the end consumer what application should be run, there is a concern over end-user privacy. Although, both Google and Apple would be releasing statements claiming that the privacy of the end-user is duly respected, the very fact that they know what application you run on their products is discomforting. This is similar to Windows sending error codes to Microsoft’s servers without asking your permission.

Over the years speculations have hovered regarding this issue and many suits have been filed with the consumer benefiting from it in the end and the manufacturer ended up paying heavily for it’s meddling with the End-User Agreement rules. Some manufacturers like Microsoft must have had it’s share of law suits for infracting the end user agreement. We’ll have to wait and see how Steve Jobs and Google handles this.