gizmosure

Tag: Play Store

  • Totok Removed by Apple and Google After Caught Spying on Users

    Totok Removed by Apple and Google After Caught Spying on Users

    Popular messaging app ToTok has been removed from the Play Store and App Store after reports emerged it was used the govt. spy tool by the United Arab Emirates.

    According to multiple sources, ToTok has been classified as a foreign spy tool used to collect personal data. The messaging app has the ability to monitor key information about its users, such as conversations, movements, appointments, relationships, appointments, sounds, as well as photos.

    Reports also added that while most of the app’s users are from the United Arab Emirates, it has become extremely popular in the US, especially among teenagers. Before ToTok was removed from online stores, it had already managed to rack up millions of downloads from smartphone users living in North America, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Meanwhile, the app has already witnessed over 110 million downloads in the US alone.

    Cyber experts believe that the app developer behind the said app has close ties with a cyber intelligence and hacking agency based in Abu Dhabi, which is already under investigation by the FBI. Both Google and Apple have removed the app from their respective app stores.

    Despite the fact that ToTok has been pulled from Play Store and App Store following reports of being used as a government surveillance tool, the app itself has not been shut down. Users of the messaging app can still carry on using the app for the foreseeable future. That said, ToTok will no longer get updates from the two largest applications stores on the planet. Hence, we advise our readers to remove the controversial app from their devices, given the fact ToTok is allegedly considered as a foreign spy tool used to collect personal data by government agencies.

  • Adware apps with over 500 million donwloads found in the PlayStore

    Adware apps with over 500 million donwloads found in the PlayStore

    Yet again, apps ridden with nasty malware were found in the PlayStore. Google has faced some serious criticism in recent months as malicious applications have often found a way to get into the Play Store. These sketchy applications witness millions of downloads before being deemed as dangerous and removed subsequently.

    The latest culprits happen to be four VPNs and two selfie apps, which have collectively racked up over 500 million installs. These apps contain harmful adware that seeks sensitive system information which according to researchers, can cause serious damage. The VPN apps in question include HotSpotVPN, Free VPN Master, Secure VPN, or CM Security Applock AntiVirus. All these four apps originate in China and bombard users’ with fraudulent ads. The four Android VPNs have been collectively installed more than 500 million times.

    “In case of outside ad fraud ads pop up while apps are running in the background or even outside the app environment (e.g. ad views placed on the home screen and covering app icons that users must reach to start new apps). As a user, not only do I think it’s treacherous for a privacy app to abruptly intrude my phone screen, but the constant HTTP requests keep the phone CPU heated and drain phone battery,” researcher Andy Michael wrote in a blog post.

    Meanwhile, the two camera apps deemed as a security risk are Sun Pro Beauty Camera and Funny Sweet Beauty Selfie Camera. Both of these apps were identified by security researchers to have racked up more than 1.5 million downloads infecting devices with adware. These camera apps were bombarding screens with full-screen ads and even continued to display ads when the pop-up remained unopened.

    Security researchers at Wandera suggest that the permissions requested by these apps can cause more harm than just filling screens with fraudulent ads. These include installing shortcuts, serving fake system alerts, as well as recording audio without user permission.

    “Intrusive out-of-app ads interrupt users in the middle of their workflow, brick their devices, drain the device battery, and in some cases, infected devices need to be replaced altogether,” explained security researchers at Wandera.

    Naturally, researchers have advised that if any of these apps are installed on your device, you should delete them right away.

  • Play Store gives developers the ability to tag apps to improve discovery

    Play Store gives developers the ability to tag apps to improve discovery

    Users would like to find apps quickly, and so do developer who’d want their apps or games easily found. However, it can be a daunting task for developers to get their application discovered among millions of apps on the Play Store. Now, in an attempt to boost their app’s ranking in search, Google will allow PlayStore developers to tag their applications with keywords to help discovery.

    According to a report by 9to5Google, the ability to add tags on the Play Store arrived a few weeks ago. The feature gives Play Store the ability to compare a particular app with others and then decide where to place it.

    Developers can choose up to 5 tags out of Google’s predetermined list of 150 tags, which can be found at the top of the tags section. Besides, developers can only change tags if they make noticeable changes to the app’s content or functionality.

    For instance, a multiplayer racing game with classic cars is likely to have the tags Racing or Car Racing because that’s what the game is all about. Hence, the game should not have tags like Dirt Racing or Truck Racing because these tags do not reflect what the game’s true genre.

    To access Tags, just bring up the Google Play console, then select Store Presence> Store Listing> Categorization> Manage Tags.

    The ability to add tags with keywords will definitely improve application discoverability for developers. That said, we hope developers do not abuse the new system in an attempt to boost their app’s ranking on the Play Store.

  • Google removes millions of fake ratings and reviews from the Play Store

    Google removes millions of fake ratings and reviews from the Play Store

    Google is obvioulsy irked by the increasing number of fake app reviews and ratings on the Play Store. However, it appears the company has finally taken stringent measures to combat fake reviews and improve authenticity on Google Play. The search engine giant has introduced a system that uses both AI and human insights to combat fake reviews and ratings on the Play Store.

    “In 2018, the Google Play Trust & Safety teams deployed a system that combines human intelligence with machine learning to detect and enforce policy violations in ratings and reviews. A team of engineers and analysts closely monitor and study suspicious activities in Play’s ratings and reviews, and improve the model’s precision and recall on a regular basis. We also regularly ask skilled reviewers to check the decisions made by our models for quality assurance,” explained Fei Ye, software engineer at Google.

    Google further adds that it has removed millions of fake ratings and reviews, along with thousands of apps that exhbhit such shady behavior. The search engine giant is essentially targeting a sudden surge in ratings, along with reviews that are hateful, vulgar, profane, or off-topic.

    Play Store
    An example of incentivized ratings on the Play Store

    Besides, Google urges developers to not run incentivized campaigns in order to improve Play Store ratings. “Don’t run campaigns, in-app or otherwise, like “Give us 5 stars and we’ll give you this in-app item!” That counts as incentivized ratings, and it’s prohibited by policy,” Google further adds in the blog post.

    Finally, Google advises users to send feedback if they come across bad ratings and reviews on Google Play.Users can mark reviews as Spam if they sound hateful, gibberish, sexual, or profane.