In times when security is a priority for the user and the Google Play Store has been continuously reported by the existence of malware among their Apps, the Mountain View technological titan began implementing its Project Strobe on January 9th. Return integrity to your app store.
Report malware in applications of the Google Play Store
As announced last October on his Android Developers blog, Google is tightening the security policies of the Play Store, and the first step is to eliminate all apps that request access to SMS and call history of users without any justification.
“We regularly update our policies for Google Play developers and today we have introduced stronger controls and new policies to keep user data safe,” Google wrote in its publication.
The new policy is designed to ensure that applications that require this permission really need full and continuous access to confidential data to be able to perform their function and that users understand why this data is necessary for the ‘app’ to work.
The developers of ‘software’ that need these permits were notified by email 90 days in advance so they could adapt their service to the new regulations since Google announced these restrictions for the first time in October. These measures were at the level of security and performance that requires an update of existing applications to API 26 (Android 8.0) or higher.
Among the conditions that Google has stipulated to allow applications access to SMS and calls are that the user receives a benefit and that this permission is important for the main functionalities of the ‘software’.
A study conducted by Symantec, shows that 45% of the most popular Android applications use localization, while 9% use phone numbers, SMS and call history.
Photo by Alejandro Escamilla on Unsplash
Also published on Medium.