Google has recently excluded Chinese app developer Do Global and are in progress removing its remaining apps from the Play Store after a BuzzFeed News report found that the developer was committing extensive ad fraud and ill-treating user authorizations.
There are as many as 46 apps by DO Global that have been removed from the Play store as of Friday. However, the report in addition added that Google did not comment specially on the banning of these apps, it quoted a source saying the company is going forward to totally ban DO Global and that further elimination of apps would follow.
A Google spokesperson in a statement had said: “We actively investigate malicious behaviour, and when we find violations, we take action, including the removal of a developer’s ability to monetize their app with AdMob or publish on Play.”
About 46 apps by DO Global have been banned from the Google Play Store as of Friday. The designer firm is partially owned by Chinese internet company Baidu, which has a 34 per cent of its share.
As per to the report, DO Global apps do not provide ad inventory for buying through Google’s AdMob network, signifying that the prohibition has been drawn-out to the ad merchandises as well.
Well, if we talk about the history, DO Global is not the only developer to be excluded from Google’s app market, but it is considered to be one of the biggest. The developer claims to have over 250 million monthly active operators for its apps, and the capability to grasp 800 million users through its ad platform.
The ad fraud was spotted by Check Point Research, which found out that at least six of the Do Global’s apps comprised a code which misinformed the operators into clicking on ads even when they were not using them. These names of these app includes Selfie Camera, Omni Cleaner, RAM Master, Smart Cooler, Total Cleaner, and AIO Flashlight.
In addition, the users were also not informed fully and the main info that is, that these apps were owned by DO Global were also not well-versed, which on the other hand violates Google’s Play Store policy.
Last year, developers Cheetah Mobile as well as Kika Tech were found committing ad fraud, but Google countered by only eliminating the concerned apps and did not take major action against any of the developers. Total of seven Cheetah Mobiles apps, comprising Clean Master, Battery Doctor, and CM Doctor, were found committing this fraud. Google also issued a statement saying, that it takes “deceptive and malicious behaviour” on the platform extremely, and if an app violates it, then they will take immediate action. Also, previously this year, Kika Tech was permitted to resubmit its earlier removed app to the Play Store.
