238 Google Play apps with >440 million installs made phones nearly unusable

guest · Jun 4, 2019

238 Google Play apps with >440 million installs made phones nearly unusable
Carefully concealed plugin bombarded users with ads during inopportune times
June 4, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/information...million-installs-made-phones-nearly-unusable/

If the prevalence of abusive Google Play apps has left you numb, this latest report is for you.
Carefully concealed adware installed in Google-approved apps with more than 440 million installations was so aggressive that it rendered mobile devices nearly unusable, researchers from mobile security provider Lookout said Tuesday.

BeiTaAd, as the adware is known, is a plugin that Lookout says it found hidden in emojis keyboard TouchPal and 237 other applications, all of which were published by Shanghai, China-based CooTek.
Lookout's post said the developers responsible for the 238 apps went to great lengths to conceal the plugin.

[...] thread discussing BeiTaAd. "This will bring up random ads in the middle of phone calls, when her alarm clock goes off or anytime she uses any other function on her phone. We are unable to find any other information on this. It is extremely annoying and almost [makes] her phone unusable."
The above-linked forum discussing BeiTaAd documents that the plugin has been menacing users for at least seven months. Google's inability to detect the abuse, either initially when the apps were submitted or later as those apps made millions of phones nearly unusable, speaks to the company's inability—or possibly its lack of sufficient motivation—to police its marketplace against flagrant abuse.
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Until Google shows signs of getting the problem of malicious and abusive apps under control, Android users should remain skeptical of Google Play and download apps sparingly.
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Lookout: New adware "BeiTaAd" found hidden within popular applications in app store

guest · Jul 17, 2019

Google bans TouchPal keyboard dev CooTek from Play Store, ad platform
July 17, 2019
https://www.slashgear.com/google-ba...-cootek-from-play-store-ad-platform-17584118/

It’s not rare to hear about malware that gets past Google Play Store’s defenses or even some that masquerade as legitimate apps. But when malware gets embedded inside those legit apps in an official manner things are bound to get messy.

Unfortunately, TouchPal and 237 other apps by CooTek was recently discovered to use a BeiTaAd adware plug-in that blatantly violated Google’s policies for Google Play Store and ads. Specifically, apps using the plugin would popup ads everywhere, even in critical situations like making phone calls [...]
CooTek seemingly acted as a good Android citizen and took action to remove the BeiTaAd plugin from its apps. Unfortunately, it seems that it had replaced that with some less obvious methods of doing the same malicious ad activity.

Unlike in the previous report, CooTek now disputes the allegation that it continues to engage in the activity. Google, however, seems to have found enough evidence to ban the company from its platforms. For a company whose bread and butter is Android apps and ads, that is a very damning ban.
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238 Google Play apps with >440 million installs made phones nearly unusable

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