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85 adware apps removed from Google Play Store, but after being downloaded over 8 million times

85 apps on Google’s Play Store, posing as photography and gaming apps and downloaded more than 8 million times were found to be serving only advertisements by taking over users’ home screen according to a research by Trend Micro. These apps displayed advertisements that were difficult to close and used “unique techniques to evade detection through user behaviour and time-based triggers," Ecular Xuo of Trend Micro said. Google removed the apps from the Play Store following these findings. Ad-frequency on these apps could be controlled remotely: What the research found out These apps kept a record of the time at which they were installed, and then every time the device was unlocked, would run several checks to gauge if the app has been installed for at least 30 minutes. After the app detected that it was installed for more than 30 minutes, it hid its icon and created a shortcut on the device’s home screen. This way, the app ensured that it couldn’t be uninstalled by being dragged and dropped to the uninstall section. After that, the app started displaying advertisements on the device’s home screen. It could also check for the intervals being displaying advertisements and also make sure that it didn’t display the same advertisement frequently. More so problematically, the research also found out that the frequency of showing advertisements could be controlled remotely. Unlike some other ad-delivering apps on Android, the research found out that these 85 apps did have actual functionalities. However, they forced users to watch…

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