Google disclosed on Monday that nearly 200,000 app submissions to its Play Store for Android were either turned down or amended to resolve issues related to access to sensitive data like location or SMS messages in the last year.
The company also mentioned that it blocked 333,000 fraudulent accounts from accessing the app store in 2023 for trying to distribute malicious software or violating policies repeatedly.
“In 2023, we prevented the publication of 2.28 million apps violating policies on Google Play, partly due to our investment in new security features, policy updates, and advanced machine learning processes for app reviews,” stated Google’s Steve Kafka, Khawaja Shams, and Mohet Saxena announced.
“To enhance user privacy on a large scale, we collaborated with SDK providers to restrict access and sharing of sensitive data, which improved privacy standards for over 31 SDKs affecting 790K+ apps.”
By contrast, in 2022, Google prevented 1.43 million malicious apps from being published on the Play Store, along with banning 173,000 fraudulent accounts during the same period.
Moreover, the tech giant mentioned that it has strengthened its procedures for developer onboarding and reviews, requiring developers to provide more identity details and undergo a verification process when creating their Play Console developer accounts.
This step enables Google to better understand the developer community and prevent bad actors from exploiting the system to promote harmful apps.
Google’s efforts to combat malicious activities on Android coincide with a lawsuit filed by the company in the U.S. against two fraudsters based in China accused of participating in an international online fraud scheme and deceiving users into downloading fake apps from the Play Store and other sources to steal their money.
