Hundreds of thousands of apps had been rejected from Google Play in 2024, and for good cause

Google is strict in regards to the safety of its Play Store, and in 2024, it blocked extra malicious Android apps than ever that violated its insurance policies and posed safety dangers.

In a current security blog post, Google detailed how its AI-powered menace detection instruments helped stop 2.36 million dangerous apps from being printed on the Play Retailer, a rise from 2023’s 2.28 million and 2022’s 1.5 million. Google additionally blocked 158,000 builders who tried to publish dangerous apps. It isn’t simply AI doing all of the work, both — people are nonetheless concerned.

“As we speak, over 92% of our human evaluations for dangerous apps are AI-assisted, permitting us to take faster and extra correct motion to assist stop dangerous apps from turning into obtainable on Google Play,” Google stated in a blog post. “That’s enabled us to cease extra unhealthy apps than ever from reaching customers by the Play Retailer, defending customers from dangerous or malicious apps earlier than they’ll trigger any harm.”

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Google is taking extra steps to guard delicate knowledge

The tech big can also be routinely revoking app permissions from dangerous apps

Google / Pocket-lint

Google additionally outlined how it’s working with builders to cut back the quantity of delicate knowledge apps must entry. The tech big stated that in 2024, it prevented 1.3 million apps “from getting extreme, pointless entry to delicate consumer knowledge.” Sometimes, an app that requests overly demanding consumer knowledge permissions is a crimson flag to Google.

Google’s Play Defend service now routinely revokes permissions from Android apps that probably pose a menace additionally. This implies Play Defend may minimize off an app’s permissions to entry delicate knowledge like your storage and images. Customers can restore the permissions in the event that they assume the app is secure.

Google additionally just lately added badges to particular apps like VPNs and official authorities providers. If you are going to obtain an app out of your native authorities, it needs to be marked with a authorities badge that reads, “Play Verified this app is affiliated with a authorities entity.” The identical goes for VPNs, which now have a “Verified” badge to point it’s secure to make use of. Google is taking many steps to guard Android customers, and based mostly on the numbers it introduced in its report and its actions, it’s paying off.

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