GOOGLE has revealed a major crackdown on dangerous apps – and says you must check a key setting immediately.
The tech giant revealed that it banned more than 2.3 million apps built to “cause you harm”.
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These apps were blocked from the Google Play Store, which is where Android owners usually get their downloads from.
Cyber-crooks often try to sneak dangerous apps onto the store in hopes of stealing from innocent victims.
They’ll use apps to nab your private info, spy on you, empty your bank account, or hold your device to ransom.
Now Google says it blocked 158,000 “bad accounts” from trying to publish dangerous apps in 2024.
And Google banned millions of apps from going live on the Play Store last year too.
“We’re continually improving these protections and evolving our policies to ensure safe, high-quality apps on Google Play and to stop bad actors before they can cause you harm,” said Google’s Suzanne Frey.
“In 2024, we prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play.
“And banned more than 158,000 bad developer accounts that attempted to publish harmful apps.”
Google said these apps would feature “digital traps” aimed at unsuspecting victims.
And it revealed how the Play Store runs “over 10,000 safety checks” on every single app.
PLAY PROTECT
Google is also urging Android phone owners to keep the Play Protect setting switched on at all times.
It’s a special feature that scans the apps on your phone to make sure they’re not dodgy.
You can find the feature by going into the Google Play Store app.
Now tap Profile > Play Protect > Settings and turn on Scan Apps With Play Protect.
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Google warns: “For security, we recommend that you always keep Google Play Protect on.”
This feature will run checks on apps before you download them.
And it’ll warn you about potentially harmful apps – even ones on your device.
If there’s an especially dangerous app, Google says that the feature can deactivate and even remove it from your device.
WHAT CAN GOOGLE PLAY PROTECT DO?
Here’s the official list of actions it’ll take…
- It runs a safety check on apps from the Google Play Store before you download them.
- It checks your device for potentially harmful apps from other sources. These harmful apps are sometimes called malware.
- It warns you about potentially harmful apps.
- It may deactivate or remove harmful apps from your device.
- It warns you about detected apps that violate our Unwanted Software Policy by hiding or misrepresenting important information.
- It sends you privacy alerts about apps that can get user permissions to access your personal information, violating our developer policy.
- It may reset app permissions to protect your privacy on certain Android versions.
- It may prevent an application from being installed that is unverified and uses sensitive device permissions that are commonly targeted by scammers to commit financial fraud.
Picture Credit: Google
You can also set Play Protect up to spot apps that you didn’t download from Google’s own store.
So if you downloaded an app directly – from another store or website – then you can get that scanned too.
Just go to the Play Store app, then tap Profile > Play Protect > Settings and turn Improve Harmful App Detection on.
Google recently upgraded Play Protect with a special AI feature to become even better at tracking down dodgy apps.
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“Google Play Protect will use on-device AI to spot apps that might engage in fraud or phishing,” Google’s Menaka Shroff explained.
“This live threat detection will analyze how apps use sensitive permissions and interact with other apps to spot suspicious behavior in real-time.
“If Google Play Protect finds something that looks malicious, the app is sent to Google for additional review, and we’ll warn users or disable the app if we confirm it’s conducting harmful activity.”
The company said Play Protect is now scanning over 200 billion apps daily.
And it’s even been able to spot 13 million “malicious apps” targeting Android phone owners that weren’t even available through the Play Store.
If Google spots a dodgy app on your phone, you should receive a notification.
You can then remove the app through the notification – or temporarily disable it.
If you’re an iPhone owner worried about dangerous spying, there are some settings you need to look at too.
And Google recently warned all Android owners to update their devices with a security fix immediately.