google: Explained: How Google removes bad apps and ‘fake’ developers from the Play Store – Times of India

Malicious or dangerous applications are quite a big problem for Google on its Play Store. Every now and then reports emerge about how fake and scam apps are out there and end up bringing bad news for android users. Google, for its part, has made a major effort to reduce the number of malicious apps from the Play Store. In fact, in a blog post, Google explained how it blocked 1.2 million policy-violating apps from being published on Google Play, preventing billions of harmful installs. It further banned 190,000 bad accounts in 2021 and closed about 500,000 inactive or abandoned developer accounts. Google explained how it did it:

Working with SDK Developers

The SDK, or Software Development Kit, is intended to provide functionality to application developers. However, as Google explains, sometimes it can be difficult to know when an SDK is safe to use. What Google has done is engage with SDK developers to create “a safer Android and Google Play ecosystem.” Google says SDK developers have improved the security of SDKs used by hundreds of thousands of apps impacting billions of users. “This remains a huge area of ​​investment for our team, and we will continue our efforts to make SDKs more secure across the ecosystem,” Google said in a blog post.

Limit access to user data

Google says it has assured new platform protections and policies. He further collaborated with developers to create awareness. 98% of apps migrating to Android 11 or higher have reduced access to sensitive APIs and user data. This means that no application developer receives too much user data. Additionally, Google has reduced unnecessary, unsafe, or prohibited use of accessibility APIs in apps migrating to Android 12, while preserving functionality for legitimate use cases. Then there’s Google Play Protect, which scans billions of apps installed on billions of devices every day to protect users from malware and unwanted software.