Google Play claims to crack down on bad apps

HIGHLIGHTS

• Google says it rejected at least 55 per cent more app submissions in 2018 than in 2017
• The search giant deleted more than 700,000 apps in 2017
• Google Play Store scans over 50 billion apps on users' devices every day to identify harmful behaviour

Google the search giant claims it's been fighting hard against malicious developers and their dreadful apps.

On Wednesday, according to a post on the Android Developers Blog Google told the Google Play Store now scans more than 50 billion apps on users' devices every day in order to recognize and stop bad apps.

According to the blog, the Play Store declined at least 55 per cent more app submissions in the year 2018 when compared to 2017. Google didn't respond to a request for how many apps were rejected in 2018. But for reference, the company deleted more than 700,000 apps in 2017.

Google told the company needed third-party app developers to be transparent about how their app's collected and used sensitive user data. Last year the search giant rejected tens of thousands of apps because they didn't comply with this rule.

The search giant has found that 80 per cent of malicious developers are repeat offenders and sometimes they work in a network. To overcome this Google has employed machine learning and human reviewers to block their apps from being published.

Andrew Ahn, product manager of Google Play wrote in the blog post, "We know bad actors will continue to try to evade our systems by changing their tactics and cloaking bad behaviours. We will continue to enhance our capabilities to counter such adversarial behaviour, and work relentlessly to provide our users with a secure and safe app store."