Patent ID: 8762987

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for determining the potential impact of an application on the health of a computing device that comprises at least one processor, the method comprising: detecting, at the computing device, an application; identifying, at the computing device, a unique identifier associated with the application; transmitting, from the computing device to a server, a request for information that identifies the potential impact of the application on the health of the computing device, wherein the request uniquely identifies the application using the unique identifier; receiving, at the computing device, the information from the server that identifies the potential impact of the application on the health of the computing device, wherein: the information is calculated based at least in part on data obtained by the server from at least one additional computing device on which the same application has previously been installed; the information received from the server comprises a health-impact score that quantifies the potential impact of the application on the health of the computing device; determining, at the computing device based at least in part on the information received from the server, whether to install the application on the computing device.