800,000 plus apps delisted from Google Play, Apple App Store

Thanks to the Covid-19 safety protocol, most people around the world are confined to the home and are forced to work and study online. Also, this has also accelerated the use of mobile apps than ever before.

However, there seems to be an influx of malicious apps not just on Google Play but also high-walled garden Apple App Store. They never perform as per the description but indulge in unethical tracking of personal details for targeted ads and also some hoodwink the users to subscribe to a premium service they never deliver.

Taking note of the alarming trend, Pixalate studied more than five million (fifty lakh) apps on both Google and Apple mobile platforms and found that 813,000, which accounts for 15 per cent of the total apps to have reported for fraud activities and have been delisted.

They registered around nine billion (900 crores) installations on Google Play Store and 21 million (2.1 crores) consumer reviews on Apple App Store.

"66% of delisted Google apps had at least one 'dangerous permission': 27% of had access to GPS coordinates and 19% could access the camera," noted Pixalate's H1 2021 Delisted Apps Report.

Also, 86 per cent of the delisted Android and 89 per cent of iOS apps targeted children aged 12 and younger.

It can be noted that most parents, in a bid to distract hyper-active children give smartphones to watch movies, and cartoons, so that can work peacefully. But, they fail to keep track of kids. The latter unknowingly install apps developed by unknown publishers and do transactions or in some rare cases share personal details with strangers (mostly predators) leading to untoward incidents.

Fortunately, 800,000 plus apps deemed unsafe have been removed (full list here) from Google Play and Apple App Store. Though they have been delisted from the platforms, users have been advised to uninstall the apps from the devices as early as possible.

Also, it is good practice to install an anti-virus app on the phone and also view reviews of the app before installing them. It will always have tell-tale signs of a bad app and is easy to avoid.

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