‘Secretly’ gathered users’ data; Dozens of apps were banned by Google!

Google has banned hundreds of applications from the Play Store that were covertly collecting users’ phone numbers and other sensitive information. Some of the prohibited applications include Muslim prayer apps that have been downloaded over 10 million times, a barcode scanning app, and highway speed trap detecting software, among others. The QR code scanning software was discovered to have a data-scraping code.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the apps that have been removed from the Google Play Store were discovered to be gathering exact location information, email and phone numbers, neighboring devices, and passwords. The study also discovered that an SDK created by Measurement Systems could scan for WhatsApp downloads. The firm is tied to a Virginia defense contractor, who allegedly paid to develop them in order for them to embed its code in their applications in order to gather customers’ data.

According to the WSJ, the intrusive code identified in the prohibited applications was uncovered by two academics, Serge Egelman and Joel Reardon, who created a business called AppCensus, which audits mobile apps for privacy and security. The researchers said that they contacted Google with their results in 2021.

‘A database mapping someone’s actual email and phone number to their precise GPS location history are particularly frightening, as it could easily be used to run a service to look up a person’s location history just by knowing their phone number or email, which could be used to target journalists, dissidents, or political rivals,’ one of the researchers, Reardon, wrote in a blog post.

However, when Google was told about the harmful malware discovered in the apps, it did not respond promptly, and the apps were removed from its Play Store only on March 25. According to Scott Westover, a Google representative, the apps might be relisted if the dangerous malware is removed. ‘All apps on Google Play, regardless of developer,’ Google stated in a statement. ‘When we find an app that breaches our regulations, we take necessary action. Some apps that had been uninstalled by the programme are already restored’.