Google Might Be Gearing Up To Remove Millions of Play Store Apps Next Month (pcworld.com) 53
An anonymous reader shares a PCWorld report: Take a look at the digital shelves of the Google Play Store and you're likely to come across a bevy of so-called zombie apps. These apps typically take the form of a knock-off of a popular game or a sloppy utility that doesn't quite match its description, and they strategically turn up alongside legitimate apps, which makes them hard to spot if you're not doing a forensic analysis of reviews while you shop. Now it looks like something is finally being done about them. In a letter uncovered by The Next Web, Google has begun warning some developers that one or more of their apps has been flagged for a lack of an adequate privacy policy, a common problem among these sort of hastily published and subsequently ignored apps. In the message, Google reiterates its policy, which "requires developers to provide a valid privacy policy when the app requests or handles sensitive user information." Such permissions include camera, microphone, account, contacts, or phone access, which requires a transparent disclosure of how user data is handled, according to Google's requirements. It's unclear how many letters were sent out, but The Next Web estimates it could affect millions of apps.
How to improve security: Limit access apps (Score:1)
If the app your developing requires access to contacts, camera, and other functionality an increasing level of scrutiny should be given. The harder you make it the less likely these malicious apps will succeed.
I guess... (Score:2)
Say Hello to Neighbor (Score:1)
Openess leads to viruses (Score:1)
Apple led the way by blocking unknown apps from its app store... which is why there's no need for an antivirus for iPhones. Google seems a few steps behind but starting to catch up.
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Why? ISTR Apple has never had a single iOS compromise unless it was a jailbroken device.
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"Why? ISTR Apple has never had a single iOS compromise unless it was a jailbroken device."
Because the mindset here is that living in daily fear of the next ransomware attack is for some reason preferable to Apple's walled garden. I myself am happy in the walled garden so long as there are still apps for all my use cases.
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Not gonna happen until they separate the ad banner from the actual app.
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And if you don't enable installing apps from shady pirate app sources, and you pay attention to the permissions apps request
Come on... To the *average* phone user, that's like saying "First you open a terminal..." and watch their eyes glaze over.
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Anyone enabling installation of apps from unknown sources on their phone knows what they're doing.
You can't be serious...
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Phew. Good thing https://arstechnica.com/security/2015/09/apple-scrambles-after-40-malicious-xcodeghost-apps-haunt-app-store/ [arstechnica.com] never happened. Or http://www.cultofmac.com/241463/researchers-sneak-malicious-ios-app-into-the-app-store-undetected/ [cultofmac.com] that. Or even http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-china-malware-idUSKCN0RK0ZB20150921 [reuters.com] that (which is a precursor to the first link I posted, so they obviously aren't even very good at fixing the problems when they show up!)
But hey we live in a world of alternat
Hyperbole (Score:5, Insightful)
Given that Google Play only has an estimated 2.6 million apps as of December, "gearing up to remove millions of apps" seems like a bit of a stretch. Could we maybe report stories without making up dramatic numbers?
Re:Hyperbole (Score:4, Funny)
No.
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How'd you ever get a low five digit UID?
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Unnecessary ad hominem is all you have to contribute?
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Beats me.
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After removing 2 million, you'll have 600.000 left, that's still too much.
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Don't give apps permissions (Score:1)
When I see a simple app asking access to camera and/or contacts I delete that app immediately.
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It should be easily possible to deny these things in settings, Android is deeply flawed.
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1 Create a page that has dropdowns and automatically generates a privacy webpage.
2. Provide a link to the page after it's generated. Think image storage sight, but in this case it's a privacy policy creation site.
3. ??????
4. Profit!
Don't steal. The government HATES competition. (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:3)
ES file explorer (Score:3)
...sloppy utility that doesn't quite match its description...
What started out as a useful utility has descended down such a hell hole that I had to uninstall it... Removing it from the Playstore would be the next logical step.
Lack of privacy policy != shady app (Score:2, Interesting)
I just received such a mail last week about one of my apps (a music visualiser that uses the microphone). None of my apps have a privacy policy because none was required by Google up until now, and I couldn't be bothered (I'm a hobbyist app creator). Turns out that it's the law in some countries. If your app has access to personal information (such as contacts, camera, microphone, ...), or sends user information to a server somewhere, you MUST have a privacy policy that explains what you do with this inform