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Play Protect

4

Google announces App Defense Alliance, brings three security companies on board to fight bad apps

Manuel Vonau

Google has always maintained that its own Play Store security mechanisms were strong enough to keep your devices safe from malware and other bad actors, but this was proven wrong again and again and again. Thus it makes sense that the company has announced the App Defense Alliance, a partnership with ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium that aims to stop bad apps before they can reach anyone's Android devices.

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7

Google Play Protect now scans more apps every day than there are people on Earth

Corbin Davenport

Google Play Protect is just about two years old, as it was introduced at I/O 2017. The tool scans all applications installed on your phone for identified malware— whether they are from the Play Store or from a sideloaded APK. At Google I/O 2019, it was revealed that Play Protect now scans 50 billion applications each day.

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49

Play Store tests simultaneous downloads, internal app sharing, more

Rita El Khoury

The Play Store is a breeding ground for Google's A/B tests. Every couple of days, the app shows different interfaces and options for some users, and it's tough to stay on top of them all. Recently, the Play Store started showing a dedicated Events tab for gaming, rolling out Pixel updates on Android Q, and we know it's working on a Material Design revamp. But there's much more in the works. In the past couple of days, app updates started behaving a little weirdly for some users, with the most important sign being the appearance of simultaneous downloads.

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77

Google bans 29 beauty camera apps from the Play Store that steal your photos

Dan Bartram

Security firm Trend Micro has discovered 29 malicious beauty camera apps that aim to phish user traffic and steal your photos. The apps have already been removed by Google from the Play Store, but only after accumulating millions of downloads.

Once installed, some of the apps would load up full-screen advertisements for fraudulent or pornographic content each time the device is unlocked, and some of the apps would forward users to phishing websites to steal their personal information.

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Power Shade and Material Notification Shade removed from the Play Store — Google says malicious, developer responds coyly

Rita El Khoury

From time to time we come across a story of an app being removed from the Play Store unjustly and the developer getting frustrated with the lack of warning or communication, and more frustratingly, the absence of a valid reason. The case of popular apps Power Shade (500K installs) and Material Notification Shade (1M+ installs) has proven to be a little different though, and possibly more head-scratching than that.

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127

Aptoide gains injunction against Google in latest antitrust case, compensation could follow

Scott Scrivens

Google's legal troubles in Europe continue as a European Commission court has accepted an injunction filed by alternative app store Aptoide. The antitrust complaint came after Google used Play Protect to warn users that Aptoide was potentially harmful.

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12

Update Notes for Photos, Play Store, Keep Notes, and more (October 8th, 2018)

Cody Toombs

Every week, I examine somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred app updates while looking for changes. The most interesting things turn into APK Teardowns or Download posts. Many of the remaining updates are unremarkable, amounting to a few bug fixes, routine updates to libraries, or even just pixel-level adjustments to layouts and images. However, there are usually a few updates that land somewhere in between. I don't want to spam readers with dozens of short posts, but I hate to ignore things that people might want to know about, so I'm going to wrap up the leftovers for a little weekend reading and call it Update Notes.

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31

With over 50 billion apps scanned daily, Google’s Play Protect removed 39 million 'Potentially Harmful Apps' in 2017

Ryne Hager

Today Google has released its 4th annual so-called "Android security year in review," a number-heavy report meant to demonstrate the improvements made over the last year when it comes to security. And it's not just ego-stroking, Android made great strides during 2017 on the subject. From the launch of Play Protect to increased distribution of security patches, Android as a platform has never been more secure. 

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150

Google's Play Protect didn't catch obfuscated malware with up to 20 million installs on the Play Store

Ryne Hager

At this year's I/O, Google announced Play Protect, a user-facing security screening process for apps on Android phones based on the old Verify Apps. Basically, it scans apps you install, comparing their content against known malware components, and notifies you if any potential risks are found. And it turns out, it's not infallible, as an older "packed" malware package was able to trick it. 

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59

Play Protect's scanning starts showing up for users in the Play Store

Rita El Khoury

Play Protect, the fancy reincarnation of Verify Apps that promises to make app scanning and malware detection more visible to users, has been promised since Google I/O but it took a while for it to start showing up. First, we noticed that the Verify Apps security setting was changed to Play Protect, but that is a buried menu that few people would often run into. Now, the more user-facing aspect is starting to show up in the Play Store.

If you head over to the My apps & games section in the Play Store, you might see the new Play Protect banner on top of all your available and recent updates.

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