Google bans slew of malicious Android apps that stole user photos and advertised scams

collected by :Maya Tony

referring to Security firm Trend Micro discovered 29 malicious apps that were listed on the official Google Play store, all advertised as "beauty camera" applications. Trend Micro points out that even technically legal content, such as pornography, promoted by these apps were a scam. Trend Micro believes these stolen photos are used for other malicious activities, such as social media photos on fake accounts. In total, the 29 malicious apps were downloaded more than 4 million times. This is far from the first time that malicious Android apps found their method to the Google Play store.

Google Maps will now display speed limits for its Android and iOS apps

For the last couple of years, my wife and I have relied on an ancient Garmin GPS for long road trips, in part because it had a useful feature that Google Maps lacked: speed limits. We might end up switching soon, because Google has begun rolling out the feature to Google Maps on iOS and Android devices. The new feature, spotted by Android Police (via Mashable), displays the posted speed limit on roads in the corner of the app, and alextremely introduces an icon to denote the location of speed cameras. Mashable reports that drivers going to get an audio notification the time they're approaching a speed trap. I'll certainly be Analyzing it out on my next road trip.

Google starts pulling unvetted Android apps that access call logs and SMS messages

as declared in Google is removing apps from Google Play that demand permission to access call logs and SMS text message data but haven't been manually vetted by Google staff. The search and mobile giant said it is part of a move to cut down on apps that have access to sensitive calling and texting data. Many apps demand access to call logs and texting data to verify two-factor authentication codes, for social sharing, or to replace the phone dialer. extremely far, tens of thousands of developers have alavailiable submitted new versions of their apps either removing the need to access call and texting permissions, Google said, or have submitted a permissions declaration. The last 2 years alone has seen multi high-profile cases of Android apps or other services leaking or exposing call and text data.