Android Warning – Google Pulls 7 Stalker Apps From Google Play Store

Android users have grown widely than any other operating software around the globe.However Android users are no strangers to security alert, they have been warned to stay away from a number of apps which stalks users of the Google mobile OS.

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Google play store on the other hand is a platform where developers and programmers upload their apps for the public and it is estimated that a whooping amount of two billion people tends to use these apps each month.

Mobile security threat researches at Avast have discovered seven apps on Google play store that were found to be loaded with stalkerware. This is a malicious form of software that stalks users.

These apps once installed tend to prompt the user to enter their email and password. The apps are able to track the user’s location, collect their contacts, SMS, Call History, and a host of others. According to an avast blog post

Avast detected and reported four of these apps to Google on Tuesday which was once removed from play store and the researchers later discovered the fifth, sixth and seventh app on Wednesday which was also reported to Google and was removed.

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These apps have been recorded to be downloaded a number of 130million times from the Play store. Nikolaos Chrysaidos, Head of Mobile Threat Intelligence and Security Avast, said “These apps are highly unethical and problematic for people’s privacy and shouldn’t be on the Google Play Store”.

He further said that “They promote criminal behavior and can be abused by employers, stalkers or abusive partners to spy on their victims. We classify such apps as stalkerware, and using apklab.io we can identify such apps, and collaborate with Google to get them removed.”

Below are list of the apps Avast discovered on Google Play Store to be Malicious:

Track Employees Check Work Phone Online Spy Free
Spy Kids Tracker
Phone Cell Tracking
Mobile Tracking
Spy Tracker
SMS Tracker
Employee Work Spy

The said apps discovered by Avast has been removed from Google Play Store by Google.The Mobile Threat Intelligence and Security has assured Andriod users that they will keep looking out for malicious apps that would in any way invade their privacy.