Security News > 2024 > April > Google rejected 2.28 million risky Android apps from Play store in 2023

Google blocked 2.28 million Android apps from being published on Google Play after finding various policy violations that could threaten user's security.

In addition to blocking nearly 2.3 million apps and suspending 333,000 offending publishers, Google has rejected or remediated 200,000 app submissions requesting access to risky permissions such as SMS content and background location data without a good reason.

Just last month, researchers found 17 "Free" VPN apps on Google Play that used a malicious monetization SDK that hijacked Android devices to act as unwitting residential proxies, likely used for cybercrime and shopping bots.

Although Google Play isn't completely immune to malware, spyware, and adware apps, Google's and its partners' efforts at the App Defense Alliance to tackle the problem make it increasingly harder to sneak malware onto the store and keep it undetected for long.

That being said, Android users are recommended to source their apps only from Google Play and avoid installing software from APK apps downloaded from poorly vetted third-party stores.

Free VPN apps on Google Play turned Android phones into proxies.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-rejected-228-million-risky-android-apps-from-play-store-in-2023/