Google Bans 600 Android Apps from Play Store for Serving Disruptive Ads

The company categorizes disruptive ads as “ads that are
displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or
interfering with the usability of device functions,” such as a
full-screen ad served when attempting to make a phone call.

Although Google didn’t name the specific apps in question, many
of the apps — which had been installed more than 4.5 billion times
— primarily targeted English-speaking users and were mainly from
developers based in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India,
according to Buzzfeed
News.
^[2]

Highlighting that malicious developers are getting “more savvy in
deploying and masking disruptive ads,” the company said it has
developed new counter mechanisms to detect such behavior.

Trouble in Google Play Store

This is not the first time adware apps have been removed from the
Google Play Store. Back in 2018, Cheetah Mobile was
accused of turning smartphones into stealthy click farms to
engage in ad fraud, leading Google to ban a bunch of its apps from
the Play Store.

Then last year, it banned app developer Do
Global^[4] and CooTek^[5] from the Play Store and
its ad platforms for similar ad policy violations.

Google has a strict policy with regards to adware and disruptive
ads^[6] in general. “We don’t
allow apps that contain deceptive or disruptive ads. Ads must only
be displayed within the app serving them. We consider ads served in
your app as part of your app. The ads shown in your app must be
compliant with all our policies.”

The internet giant has also been leveraging Google Play
Protect^[7] as a means to secure
devices from potentially harmful applications by combining a mix of
on-device protections and a cloud-based machine learning
infrastructure to routinely scan apps, detect malicious apps faster
and at a larger scale without any human supervision.

But the app storefront has come under criticism in recent months
for its failure to rein in malware-laced apps, which have been
installed by millions of users without realizing their insidious
nature.

Adware, while less severe than other targeted campaigns, have been
pervasive, pointing to growing challenges with the app screening
process, what with the defenses coming down in the face of such
sophisticated adware attacks.

Although Google Play Protect has “detected and removed malicious
developers faster” — over 790,000
policy-violating app^[8]
submissions were blocked before they were even published to the
Play Store in 2019 alone — it seems powerless against what appears
to be a steady pattern of potentially harmful apps bypassing its
security checkpoint, highlighting the scope of the problem.

In response, Google also forged an “App Defense
Alliance^[9]” in partnership with
cybersecurity firms ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium, an initiative
that aims to reduce the risk of app-based malware, identify new
threats, and protect smartphone users from bad actors leveraging
the platform for their gain.

To safeguard yourself, the same rules of security hygiene apply:
stick to the Play Store for downloading apps and avoid sideloading
from other sources. More importantly, scrutinize the reviews,
developer details, and the list of requested permissions before
installing any app.

^[1][3]