Privacy alert: Google clean Spyware from Android apps targeting users in India
Delhi : Google was forced to take extraordinary measures and remove the predatory lending applications from the Play Store in response to severe concerns raised by these apps in India and other countries. This will prevent millions of people from downloading the apps unintentionally and leaving themselves open to potential blackmail and other malpractices.
Google was reportedly compelled to delete many apps that had amassed over 12 million downloads worldwide, including in India, according to a recent security report. These Android applications went by the term "SpyLoan apps" since they were tricked into thinking they were loan apps on the Play Store, but because of their deceitful nature, there is a chance that they may steal or spy on customers using their cellphones.
The specifics of these applications, their potential to impact users, and the data they may access are all covered in the ESET Research paper. Using sophisticated strategies, these malicious programmes take advantage of people's faith in reputable loan providers to acquire a wide variety of personal information, according to Lukas Stefanko from ESET Research, who made the discovery of these spy loan apps.
The individuals behind these espionage applications were nationals of several nations, including Egypt, Kenya, Peru, Thailand, India, and Pakistan. The main cause of the rise in popularity of these loan apps is the large number of people who want rapid loans without having to deal with bank-related processes. These kinds of apps have demonstrated how harmful they can be, since some individuals have allegedly committed suicide as a result of the pressure these firms place on them to repay their debts quickly and at greater interest rates than typical loans.
According to Google, their goal is to put a stop to the suffering caused by these predatory programmes that even snoop on users. With over 12 million downloads already, more than 200 similar applications have been taken down from the Play Store. The challenge now is freeing the impacted users from the vicious cycle that these apps have created.
