Google Play Store Banned More than 22 Lakh Apps for Policy Violations

American technology company Google’s Play Store has banned about 22.8 lakh apps last year due to policy violations. Google said that it has also banned about 3,33,000 developer accounts due to malware and repeated policy violations. The company has also implemented new policies to improve user experience on its app marketplace.

Google has also informed about the measures taken to protect users from suspicious apps, malware and online scams in its security-focused blog. Apart from blocking the publishing of about 22.8 lakh apps and banning about 3,33,000 developer accounts due to policy violations, the Play Store has also rejected or modified the applications of about two lakh apps for not ensuring proper use of sensitive permissions. Sensitive permissions include background location tracking and access to SMS or contacts.

Along with this, Play Store has also filed a legal case in the Federal Court against two app developers who were trying to upload fraudulent investment and crypto exchange apps. Google has started identifying risky apps on its Play Store. In this connection, Google has filed a legal case against two Chinese citizens. Both of them are suspected of using the Play Store to advertise fraudulent crypto apps. Google’s competitor Apple has a policy of maintaining distance from crypto-related activities. In the case filed by Google, it has been alleged that these two Chinese citizens were luring people to join fraudulent crypto apps.

Those who joined these apps were asked to pay a deposit and later their access was blocked. Google alleges that these two Chinese citizens had given false identity and location and gave wrong information about these apps to publish them on the Play Store. These fraud crypto apps are estimated to have more than one lakh downloads.