More than 10 million users installed Android apps that showed out-of-context ads

guest · Jan 15, 2021

More than 10mil users installed Android apps that showed out-of-context ads
Google has removed all 164 offending Android apps from its official Play Store.
January 15, 2021
https://www.zdnet.com/article/more-...-android-apps-that-showed-out-of-context-ads/

Google has removed 164 Android applications from the official Play Store after security researchers caught the apps bombarding users with out-of-context ads last year.

Out-of-context ads, or out-of-app ads, is a relatively new technical term that refers to mobile ads that are shown inside a popup or on the entire screen, separate from the original app.
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However, while the original ban on out-of-context ads brought bans for 600 Android apps, this didn't mean that app developers stopped abusing this mechanism.

Both in June and October 2020, Google was forced to intervene again and ban a wave of 38 and 240 apps, respectively, that continued to abuse this mechanism.
Both app clusters were discovered by White Ops; a security firm specialized in detecting bot and advertising fraud.
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But this week, White Ops said that it recently discovered another app cluster that also abused out-of-context ads, a cluster that managed to stay undetected more than the others, for more than two years.

The names of all the 164 Android apps are too long to include in this news article, but users can find a complete list in White Ops' report.
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White Ops: Imitation is the sincerest form of fraudery

Simply put, if you have one of the apps referenced in the Appendix below, remove it from your mobile device. Additionally, the Satori Team recommends blocking any apps that call ads from activities inside the package com.tdc.adservice.*. Even though platforms could choose to allow legitimate traffic from these apps by blocking only the out-of-context ads, the Satori Team recommends using the heavier-handed approach of blocking all the apps, since they were likely created very specifically to take advantage of the digital ecosystem.

When downloading a new app, make sure that you’re getting the real, official version of what you’re trying to get. Look at the reviews, not just the glowing five-star reviews, but also the one- and two-star reviews. Those are the ones that will call out ads that don’t belong and will alert you if something is amiss.
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More than 10 million users installed Android apps that showed out-of-context ads

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