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Google Might Be Gearing Up To Remove Millions of Play Store Apps Next Month (pcworld.com)
An anonymous reader shares a PCWorld report: Take a look at the digital shelves of the Google Play Store and you're likely to come across a bevy of so-called zombie apps. These apps typically take the form of a knock-off of a popular game or a sloppy utility that doesn't quite match its description, and they strategically turn up alongside legitimate apps, which makes them hard to spot if you're not doing a forensic analysis of reviews while you shop. Now it looks like something is finally being done about them. In a letter uncovered by The Next Web, Google has begun warning some developers that one or more of their apps has been flagged for a lack of an adequate privacy policy, a common problem among these sort of hastily published and subsequently ignored apps. In the message, Google reiterates its policy, which "requires developers to provide a valid privacy policy when the app requests or handles sensitive user information." Such permissions include camera, microphone, account, contacts, or phone access, which requires a transparent disclosure of how user data is handled, according to Google's requirements. It's unclear how many letters were sent out, but The Next Web estimates it could affect millions of apps.
And nothing of value will be lost...
If the app your developing requires access to contacts, camera, and other functionality an increasing level of scrutiny should be given. The harder you make it the less likely these malicious apps will succeed.
...no more "Poke mongo"...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Apple led the way by blocking unknown apps from its app store... which is why there's no need for an antivirus for iPhones. Google seems a few steps behind but starting to catch up.
Given that Google Play only has an estimated 2.6 million apps as of December, "gearing up to remove millions of apps" seems like a bit of a stretch. Could we maybe report stories without making up dramatic numbers?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Google is simply jealous that they aren't appy enough to know how to app apps, because only LUDDITES would want to remove appy app apps from app stores! Appdows 10 has the appiest apps and never has to remove apps, because only apps can app apps!
Apps!
When I see a simple app asking access to camera and/or contacts I delete that app immediately.
Europe the has-been is a shithole.
You left out anteaters...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
As a little niche app developer, this new requirement for having a privacy statement based on app permissions is a a bunch of BS. My app asks for permissions to process data on the phone, and nothing ever leaves the phone. So the privacy statement here is "nothing will ever be shared", end of story.
Now I need to set up a web site, write a bunch of legalese (or copy from some other site that I trust means something legal) and link to it from my app's profile. Who at Google is going to read and vet the legalese that is posted (assuming it's not just an excerpt from a public domain poem)? Will users actually read and understand a long legal document? If the answer to these is no, then the forced link serves no purpose.
What a PITA. Instead there should be a few options like "this app does not collect or transmit any information off the phone" and that's it. One of those options could be "provide my own statement" and a URL.
Sadly, little guys like me have no way to express our frustration over these changes. So when the deadline hits my app will be gone forever. Too bad.
Wow! Who knew?
So which apps are implemented as to insecure to the model API, or is every development platform lacking security until Programmers have a college accreditted degree?
What is security if the API is only there to distinguish from competing platforms?
So does Google. All your SPI are belong to us!
I really wish there was a way to sort the search results when I'm looking for an app. All the crappy ones usually show up first and I have to scroll endlessly to find the right one or a good one.
I gave up on Google Play Store a few months ago. Couldn't believe the amount of crap apps that have ridiculous permissions attached to them. It's incredible what Google allows for apps. I guess at one point its just been about bragging rights for how many are available. I've tried the Amazon underground and that's not a whole lot better. Yea, I can see how people get hooked into these faux apps that appear to be the real deal. The store is the biggest disappointment about Android for me.
...sloppy utility that doesn't quite match its description...
What started out as a useful utility has descended down such a hell hole that I had to uninstall it... Removing it from the Playstore would be the next logical step.
And how about the apps in videos that should be returned by https://www.youtube.com/result... but for some reason, I am getting an error message. YouTube search is apparently broken for me. I used the YouTube feedback form. I also wrote a comment that their error message contains no real useful information. Why are big companies' error messages so useless?
how would I automate revoking every intercommunication or privilege to every app?
Surely, peeling through the Sertings InstalledApp program todo by hand on each installed app would take too long. Ontop of that, the Google presence pf so many apps that I dont use seems to be proxy network access through other unlisted apps that still have permissions needed by those that are blocked.
I just received such a mail last week about one of my apps (a music visualiser that uses the microphone). None of my apps have a privacy policy because none was required by Google up until now, and I couldn't be bothered (I'm a hobbyist app creator). Turns out that it's the law in some countries. If your app has access to personal information (such as contacts, camera, microphone, ...), or sends user information to a server somewhere, you MUST have a privacy policy that explains what you do with this information. All Google is doing now, is enforce that law. It has nothing to do with fighting knock-off apps or improving the quality of the apps in the store.
Make America great again. Grab them by the pussy! #MAGA
I got an app flagged. It requests just ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION without even asking for INTERNET permissions. So how does this make it sensitive? Got no response from the google-play team.
Uh, we have a flamebait mod point up there, with no flames.