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On Sunday, Android Police (a popular news and review site) published a post on "Virus Shield" — an app which reached top ranking in Play, and yet, was a complete fraud. In a follow up, DailyTech did some digging and believes the app was written by a 17 year-old Texan. Apparently he's good at SEO.
Whether he's the guy or not… it fits the typical profile. A young person with good SEO skills pushing a rather useless app.
Lame "SEO apps" are prevalant on Google Play. They're easy to find if you look.
For example:
• Best Antivirus Lite
• SAFE antivirus Limited
• Skulls Antivirus
• Shnarped Hockey antivirus lite
Best and SAFE link to one "developer" — while Skulls and Shnarped Hockey link to another.
Though there are two different developers… the apps are identical apart from their name. The apps appear to be based on a template (there are markets for app templates) and all the so-called developers have done is to add their own graphics.
Android apps: no developer skills required.
So what do the apps do?
Well, the "antivirus" open sa screen label "anti spyware".
Hmm, the terms changed. That ought to be a warning sign.
Click "Start Scan" and the app does a basic scan of permissions for installed apps. Apps with a large number of permissions are categorized as a risk and those with a low number of permissions are called safe. And if you want to see the details? Well, then you need to buy the "full" version of the app for about a buck. In our humble opinion, the folks who bought the full versions (more than one thousand) completely wasted their money.
Google Play: caveat emptor.
P.S. If you want an app that does an advanced scan of permissions and provides excellent details entirely FREE of charge…
Check out F-Secure App Permissions for Android.
On 10/04/14 At 05:03 PM
Weiterlesen...
Whether he's the guy or not… it fits the typical profile. A young person with good SEO skills pushing a rather useless app.
Lame "SEO apps" are prevalant on Google Play. They're easy to find if you look.
For example:
• Best Antivirus Lite
• SAFE antivirus Limited
• Skulls Antivirus
• Shnarped Hockey antivirus lite
Best and SAFE link to one "developer" — while Skulls and Shnarped Hockey link to another.
Though there are two different developers… the apps are identical apart from their name. The apps appear to be based on a template (there are markets for app templates) and all the so-called developers have done is to add their own graphics.
Android apps: no developer skills required.
So what do the apps do?
Well, the "antivirus" open sa screen label "anti spyware".
Hmm, the terms changed. That ought to be a warning sign.
Click "Start Scan" and the app does a basic scan of permissions for installed apps. Apps with a large number of permissions are categorized as a risk and those with a low number of permissions are called safe. And if you want to see the details? Well, then you need to buy the "full" version of the app for about a buck. In our humble opinion, the folks who bought the full versions (more than one thousand) completely wasted their money.
Google Play: caveat emptor.
P.S. If you want an app that does an advanced scan of permissions and provides excellent details entirely FREE of charge…
Check out F-Secure App Permissions for Android.
On 10/04/14 At 05:03 PM
Weiterlesen...