158,000 Risky Android Developer Accounts Banned by Google in 2024
In 2024, Google blocked over 2.36 million Android apps that violated its policies from being published on the Google Play Store. Additionally, more than 158,000 developer accounts attempting to submit harmful apps were banned. Google also worked with third-party app developers to prevent 1.3 million apps from accessing unnecessary or excessive user data, improving security.
Google Play Protect, a built-in security feature on Android devices, detected 13 million new malicious apps outside the official Google Play Store. As a result of collaborating with developers, more than 91% of apps installed from the Play Store now use the latest Android security protections, such as Android 13 or newer.
Compared to previous years, Google made significant improvements. In 2022, it blocked 1.43 million risky apps, and in 2023, it blocked 2.28 million. Furthermore, the company reported an 80% decrease in the use of unverified sources for app installations with the Play Integrity API. Google also helped protect 10 million devices in various countries from risky app installations by automatically blocking sideloading attempts and introduced a "Verified" badge for VPN apps that pass a security audit.
Source: https://thehackernews.com/2025/01/google-bans-158000-malicious-android.html