Google Play and Apple App Store Bans 8 Lakh Apps; Delete From Your Phone

The Google Play Store and the Apple App Store have reportedly banned hundreds of thousands of apps. Pixalate's "H1 2021 Mobile Apps Report" shows that more than 8,13,000 apps were delisted in the first half of 2021 on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Of these, 86 percent of the apps are said to be aimed at children under the age of 12. For reference, Pixalate is the market's leading fraud protection, privacy, and compliance analytics platform for connected television (CTV) and mobile advertising. The data shared in this report is based on Pixalate's proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating, the company says.

Why did Google Play Store and the Apple App Store ban these apps?

Apps can be banned or removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store list for a variety of reasons. The removal of the apps could be due to a number of factors, including a violation of the app store policy or the withdrawal of the developer, "the report says. The "H1 2021 Delisted Mobile Apps Report" from Pixalate shares some key data points. It says that the company analyzed more than 5 million mobile apps across Apple's App Store and Google Play Store. Moreover, these apps had over 21 million consumer reviews on the App Store prior to delisting. Hence, the apps are expected to be present on millions of users' smartphones despite being delisted from the app stores. "

What We Need To Do:

The Google Play Store and Apple App Store may have banned them from their stores, but these apps are probably on your phone. What you need to do is search and delete them immediately.

If an app was removed due to an app store policy violation, there is an increased risk to consumer privacy and safety, as well as brand safety for advertisers.

Google Play Store and Apple App Store Downloads

Google is reported to have had 9.3 billion downloads and Apple apps had 21.8 million user ratings prior to exclusion. Furthermore, 86% (Google) and 89% (Apple) of the apps excluded from the list were aimed at children under 12 years of age. Additionally, 25% of Google and 59% of Apple's excluded apps had no privacy policy detected.

The report goes on to say that 26% of the apps removed from Russia's list did not have a privacy policy detected on the Google Play Store. On the other hand, 60% of the applications deleted from the list in China did not have a privacy policy detected in the Apple App Store. Additionally, 66% of Google apps removed from the list had at least one "dangerous permission." Of these, 27% had access to GPS coordinates and 19% could access the camera.