Google has removed many apps from the Play Store following investigations into the code whereby it was found to have been malicious in intent.
The code had been placed in order to harvest people’s locations, phone numbers and email addresses, very much against GDPR.
Weather apps and QR scanners were within the list of applications holding the malicious code, the apps have been downloaded millions of times already.
Google has come out and explained that apps are required to meet the Google policies when being placed on the Play Store and that these apps did not meet up to the compliance requirements.
This has been an issue for Google before now, whereby a company called Huq collected location data from users, and was banned.
Permission by the phone owner must be given for an app to be able to access data such as that mentioned before.
The apps which have been banned contained a software development kit, which sent private information to third parties.
The majority of the apps are now available once more without the software development kit included, therefore no longer holding the malicious code.
