We've all heard the debates (or been involved in them) about Android malware. Some say it doesn't really exist and is only used as a "scare tactic." Others insist that it's a threat and is becoming more prominent.

Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, Lookout Labs would have us believe that it finds thousands of threats everyday. In order to help visualize this claim, Lookout released a new app to the Market called Mobile Threat Tracker that shows, in almost real-time, detected infections on Lookout-protected devices across the globe.

Each infection is dramatically flown into the screen and represented by a stream of glowing light that becomes a glowing dot of malware/spyware evil on its respective part of the globe. Tapping on the question mark at the top gives more info on what you're looking at, including a nice reminder of what planet Earth looks like (in case you didn't know, that's it up there ^). You can swipe the bottom bar to watch the animation again from a starting point of your choosing; similarly, you can swipe across the globe to rotate and check infection levels in specific areas (I feel like I'm talking about the zombie apocalypse here).

A tap on the info button at the top gives a percentage breakdown of the spyware-malware spread and the top ranking threats. Tap on each threat to learn more about it.

Is this something that you really care about? Probably not. Is it something pretty and cool to look at? Most definitely. If nothing else, it's worth the install just to watch it shoot little glowing dots onto a globe. You can uninstall it after that.

It's free in the Android Market, so hit the link below if you want to take a look.

[via Lookout]