The Google Play Store is once again home to infected apps. Computer security researchers at AppCensus have discovered that there are 11 apps in the store that are capable of spying on users and collecting certain data such as GPS location, email addresses, and phone numbers.
Not a week goes by without a team of computer security researchers reporting an alarming new discovery for Android users. In March 2022 alone, we remember This fake Android antivirus can steal your moneyor even Those very popular apps on Play Store and App Store that were actually scams.
Today’s revelation, we owe it to AppCensus computer security researchers. These experts discovered a presence on Google Play Store Among the 11 malicious apps, it is particularly capable of spying on users without their knowledge. What is worrying in this case is the number of downloads accumulated by these applications: More than 60 million. Lots of potential victims. Here is a list of affected apps:
- speed camera radar
- Al-Moazin Lite (Prayer Times)
- Wi-Fi Mouse (PC Remote Control)
- QR & Barcode Scanner (Developed by AppSource Hub)
- Qibla Compass – Ramadan 2022
- Simple weather and clock widget (Developed by Difer)
- Handcent Next SMS-Text with MMS
- Smart Kit 360
- Holy Quran MP3 – 50 Reciters & Voice Translation
- Complete Quran MP3 – 50 Languages & Audio Translation
- Audiosdroid Audio Studio DAW
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These apps may collect your GPS data
As you can see, this list is somewhat selective, among QR Code readers, weather apps, messaging, and also apps dedicated to practicing Islam. According to the researchers, these malicious applications contain malicious software capable of collecting many data from the victims’ smartphones, such as email address, phone numbers, certain passwords or even GPS location record.
Alarmingly, a shady company by the name of Measurement Systems apparently paid a fortune to collect this precise data via the SDK (Software Development Kit) built into the aforementioned apps. The company did not want to answer questions from our colleagues from the Wall Street Journal. After publishing the AppCensus search, Google removed the affected apps from the Play Store.
However, they have just returned to the App Store. If we suspect that Google has confirmed that it is now safe, We invite you to delete these apps immediately if you have downloaded them before it was discovered by the researchers at AppCensus.
source: Wall Street Magazine
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