Google Play Store purges popular Chinese developer's apps on account of ad-fraud

Ad-fraud is a big problem that Google has to constantly deal with on the Play Store. Developers often have a tendency to design apps which contain code for users to fraudulently click on ads which can drain the battery and also use unnecessary mobile data. Chinese firm DO Global, which makes Android apps, has been deemed by Google as a creator of fraudulent ads on its apps and the Mountain View-based giant has purged most of DO Global’s apps. [caption id=“attachment_5437421” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Representational image. tech2[/caption] As per a report by Buzzfeed, DO Global, which is partially backed by Chinese search engine giant Baidu, has had up to 46 apps removed from Play Store and many more could bite the dust. “We actively investigate malicious behaviour, and when we find violations, we take action, including the removal of a developer’s ability to monetise their app with AdMob or publish on Play,” a Google spokesperson told Buzzfeed. DO Global’s apps have about 600 million installs worldwide and have 250 million active users on its apps.  As per the report, apps such as Selfie Camera and Total Cleaner apps contained “code that could enable app attribution ad fraud”. This would enable the app to gain false rewards points for enabling the downloads of other apps.