Own a phone? Then be very scared! Google Play Store reveals why – it just banned 1.4 mn apps

Despite several security measures, cybersecurity has always been a concern for Android smartphone users. Now, Google Play Store has revealed some of the numbers that will make you feel terrified of owning a smartphone. Google has announced that it banned 1.43 million apps, that were violating its policies, from being published on Google Play in 2022. This was in a bid to maintain the platform’s safety for both users and developers, Google said. To keep you safe from malware and unwanted software, Google says it scans billions of installed apps on a daily basis and bans many of them. In fact, as a pre-emptive strike, Google had prevented these 1.43 million apps from being published. In effect, slapping a ban on them before they had a chance to violate innocent users’ security. While these apps were banned before publication, there are many malicious apps, full of malware, that do get published on the Play Store. Read about these 19 dangerous apps here. 

Not just that, Google also continued to combat malicious developers and fraud rings. In fact, it banned 173,000 bad accounts in the last year, the search giant confirmed in a blog post. Google identifies a developer account as “bad” if it is associated with a fraudulent developer group, an app publisher acting on behalf of a fraudulent developer group, or a fraudulent publisher group itself.

The slapping of this ban, helped to prevent over $2 billion in losses for users due to fraudulent and abusive transactions, the report added.

Google has implemented stronger platform protections and policies for Android, as well as increased outreach and educational efforts for developers. As a result, Google was able to prevent approximately 500,000 submitted apps from accessing sensitive permissions that were deemed unnecessary. This does not imply that Google prevented 500k malicious apps from being published on Google Play. Instead, it indicates that Google in collaboration with programs such as the App Defense Alliance identified ways to create apps that could perform their intended functions without exceeding their necessary capabilities.

Google Pixel users got a ‘powerful’ security feature

Google has introduced enhanced security and privacy settings for Pixel devices running Android 13, providing a more robust security and privacy framework for millions of users globally each month. That means all the latest Google Pixel devices such as Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel 6a, and others will get this updated security feature. Moreover, the Private Compute Core enables Pixel smartphones to identify harmful apps in a privacy-preserving manner, providing more powerful features to ensure the safety of Pixel users.