If you’re an Android user, you’ll be warned about not using 36 apps, which could put your privacy and security at risk. Your bank details and other important information can be stolen by these illegal apps. The Google Play Store launched a crackdown and banned 36 of these apps. McAfee announced the app in a blog post said, “Infected apps came from various Android app stores. Over 100 million downloads were tracked through Google Play. Then, ONE store, Korea’s top app store. , followed by around 8 million installs.”
According to blog postMcAfee’s mobile research team discovered a software library called Goldoson, which collects a list of installed apps and user history. WIFI And Bluetooth device information, including nearby GPS location. Furthermore, the gallery is equipped with the function of performing ad fraud by clicking on ads in the background without the user’s consent.
“The research team found more than 60 apps containing this malicious third-party library, with more than 100 million downloads confirmed in the ONE store and Google Play app download market in South Korea. malicious library created by others, not the app developers, the risk to those who install the app remains,” the post added.
McAfee also reported the detected apps to Google, which took action in a timely manner. Google has notified developers that their apps violate Google Play policies and that fixes are needed to achieve compliance. While 36 apps have been removed from the Google Play Store, others have been officially updated by the developers. There have been more than 60 apps and 27 apps have been updated while another 36 apps have been removed from the Play Store by Google. If you’ve downloaded these 36 apps, delete them now.
You can check the list of apps here under the banner: Application list and current status
Google Play treats the list of installed apps as personal and sensitive user data and requires the declaration of special permissions to obtain that data. Users running Android 11 and above are better protected against apps that try to collect all installed apps. “However, even with recent versions of Android, we found that about 10% of apps with Goldoson have the ‘QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES’ permission that allows them to access app information,” McAfee said.
Likewise, with Android 6.0 and above, users may be asked for permissions like Location, Memory, or Camera at runtime. If the user allows location permission, the app can not only access GPS data, but also nearby Wi-Fi and Bluetooth device information.
