According to a report by Google itself, it has now deleted 98 percent of the apps from Google Play Store that spy on user’s calls and texts. The apps that were deleted required access to user’s call and text log for functioning without actually needing it. The other 2 percent that are left, Google said, would not be able to function properly without access to user’s call log and text history. The details were revealed through a blog post published by Andrew Ahn, a Product Manager for Google Play &Andriod App Safety.
It all started back in 2018 when Google announced a directive for developers to refrain from gaining access to user’s call logs and text history when it was not needed for their app’s basic functioning. Google gave developers a period of 90 days before it began taking down apps that asked for access to user’s call log and text history. A recent study had revealed that there are even games on Google Play Store that collect data user’s call logs and text history just to breach them and use them for their sponsors. According to Google, it has removed over 790,000 apps that went against Google’s policies even before they were published on Google Play Store.
Talking about the apps that have been blocked from Google Play Store, ToTok, a popular messaging app, which was allegedly used by the UAE to spy on citizen’s locations, has been blocked for a second time by Google. After initially banning the application back in December last year, the app secretly made a return to Play Store by January. Google has spotted that again apparently and have blocked them again from Play Store.