In a shock transfer, Google banned a number of apps developed by the Chinese language ecommerce platform Pinduoduo on Tuesday, March 21. Google stated that the ban was handed down after malicious habits was detected. Later, these Chinese language apps had been flagged as malware and it was reported that they had been monitoring customers who had put in them on their devices. Google additionally despatched out a notification to all of the customers who had put in these apps asking them to delete them instantly. This comes after a number of Chinese language safety researchers have claimed that Pinduoduo is making Android apps which might monitor customers.
Ed Fernandez, a Google spokesperson, revealed, “Off-Play variations of this app which have been discovered to include malware have been enforced on by way of Google Play Shield”. For the unaware, Off-Play apps confer with Android apps which aren’t current on the Play Retailer however can nonetheless be downloaded by customers via APKs.
Moreover, the spokesperson additionally said that the official app of Pinduoduo was suspended “for safety considerations whereas we proceed our investigation”.
Google bans Chinese language apps
Pinduoduo is a serious ecommerce firm in China which has 800 million energetic customers throughout its varied apps. The corporate has usually been credited with popularizing the social commerce mannequin, the place customers purchase merchandise whereas utilizing a social media platform with out ever having to go away the app. Apps resembling these must closely customise the app expertise to maximise consumer spending their time and to extend their probabilities of shopping for one thing.
Accusations round Pinduoduo had been raised a few weeks in the past when some cybersecurity researchers revealed the presence of a back-door which allowed the apps to trace and monitor the consumer and their habits even exterior the app utilization.
“Google Play has knowledgeable us this morning that the Pinduoduo App has been quickly suspended as the present model shouldn’t be compliant with Google’s Coverage, however has not shared extra particulars,” a Pinduoduo spokesperson stated, confirming the stories of bans.
In a separate assertion given to TechCrunch, one other spokesperson stated, “we strongly reject the hypothesis and accusation by some nameless researcher and non conclusive response from Google that Pinduoduo app is malicious. There are a number of apps which have been suspended from Google Play on the identical time and we discover it peculiar that TechCrunch selected to single out Pinduoduo”.
