Lately, there have been a series of reports of Google removing fraudulent Android apps on the Google Play Store. Now, the company has come up with the results of its continued efforts.
In a 2018-in-review announcement, Andrew Ahn, Product Manager at Google Play, said that Play Store app suspensions went up by 66% as compared to last year. He attributes the “fight against bad actors” to the improvement in abuse detection technologies and increment in policy experts.
Similarly, the Play Store app rejections increased by 55% from 2018. Andrew credited this change to the tighten policies and stringent app review process that the company placed in last year.
Previously, Google introduced new policies for SMS and Call apps that forced many prominent apps to change their essential features. Andrew Ahn says that the company will be adding many such policies in 2019.
Google also acknowledges the importance of Google Play Protect that is continuously identifying and stopping malicious Android apps from entering the Play Store. Andrew writes that the Play Protect now scans over 50 billion apps on users’ devices, looking for troublesome apps.
The announcement comes just after Google and Apple were accused of harboring a Saudi Arabia’s government app that tracks women movements.
“We know bad actors will continue to try to evade our systems …we will continue to enhance our capabilities to counter such adversarial behavior,” Ahn said in the Android Developer’s blog post.
