Beware of these Android apps! Google removes malicious apps with over 1.5 million downloads from Play Store

Google has removed two popular selfie-camera filter apps from the Play store, which were downloaded for over 1.5 million times. The apps were booked for hosting illegal adware and the action was taken against them, after finding these two apps shady. Wandera security research team detected these tow apps as Sun Pro Beauty Camera and Funny Sweet Beauty Camera.

The research team found that Sun Pro Beauty Camera app, after being installed on the phone creates an icon in the app drawer. While after the user taps on the app, it creates a shortcut and removes itself from the app drawer. Also, in case the user wants to delete or uninstall the app, the shortcut of the app gets deleted while it continues to work in the background and keeps showing full-screen ads on phone.

The second app is Funny Sweet Beauty Camera application which pushes a full-page ad after downloading a filtered photo downloaded from the app. More importantly, these apps seek the permissions of recording audio anytime without the consent of the user.

However, there were no complaints of any kind of privacy related issues or any case of data stealing. While Google in order to keep its users free from any kind of digital attack, has removed these apps from the Play Store.

Also according to the researchers, the apps‘ functionality was similar to a number of photography and gaming apps uncovered by Trend Micro in August, which displayed ads that were difficult to close and employed “unique techniques to evade detection through user behavior and time-based triggers.”

For user, it is always advisable to keep a check on such apps that asks for unwanted consent or permissions to access. Also, avoid downloading any app from third party sources.