Google has banned 22 beauty apps from its Play store after following discoveries that the apps encourage malicious practices.
The apps are said to send malicious ads to users, send them to phishing websites and also steal their private pictures.
Prior to the ban, most of the apps already had over a million downloads. Trend Micro reports that most of the downloads originated from Asia, particularly India. The site encourages users to check the legitimacy of an app prior to downloading it, for instance, by reading reviews by other users. “If the reviews mention any kind of suspicious behavior, then it might be a good idea to refrain from downloading the app,” Micro Trends advises.
Here is a list of some of the apps that were affected:
- Pro Camera Beauty
- Cartoon Art Photo
- Emoji Camera
- Artistbehaviourt Filter
- Art Editor
- Beauty Camera
- Selfie Camera Pro
- Horizon Beauty Camera
- Super Camera
- Art Effects for Photo
- Awesome Cartoon Art
- Art Filter Photo
- Cartoon Effect
- Art Effect
- Photo Editor
- Wallpapers HD
- Magic Art Filter Photo Editor
- Fill Art Photo Editor
- ArtFlipPhotoEditing
- Art Filter
- Cartoon Photo Filter
- Pixture
Read the full article here.
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