Google Bans Dozens of Apps

Google has yanked dozens of apps from its Play store after determining they include a software element that surreptitiously harvests data, the WSJ reports.

📱 The deets… A Panamanian company called Measurement Systems was responsible for writing the data-harvesting code, per two researchers who published their findings yesterday.

Ready for the shoe to drop?

• Measurement Systems is linked through corporate records and web registrations to a Virginia defense contractor that does cyberintelligence, network-defense and intelligence-intercept work for US national-security agencies.
• Its software has been found inside several Muslim prayer apps, a highway-speed-trap detection app, a popular weather app in Iran, a QR-code reading app and a number of other popular consumer apps. All in all, the code is installed on more than 60 million Android devices.
• And its reach could be much larger. In addition to collecting precise location data and unique identifiers (phone and/or email), the software could spot the existence of other devices running on the same Wi-Fi network as one with the code. (I.e., it would know who you were around.)

⚙️ How it worked: The company would pay developers to install its SDK (software development kit) inside their apps, saying the data was being collected on behalf of internet-service providers and fin-serv and energy companies. 

• According to the WSJ, developers could earn anywhere from $100 to $10,000 – or more – per month depending on how many active users it could deliver.