Google removes 29 apps that stole user photos

The Internet giant Google continues, day after day, fighting so that its application store, the Google Play Store, is free of all those utilities that, with bad intentions, try to obtain data and material from those users who have a bad download. This time it was the turn of the category of photo editing applications (beauty section) and it has withdrawn from its store almost thirty applications that were stealing images from the interior of mobile devices that those who downloaded them installed on .

Beware of beauty filter apps

Trend Micro has been in charge of uncovering a network of malicious applications that offered users pornographic material, redirected them to fake websites that imitated many other legitimate ones (what is known as a 'phishing' technique ) and stole their personal photos thanks to the fact that, in order to use these types of tools, the application must be able to access the multimedia content of the device. Some applications that had already been downloaded by millions of users, given the enormous popularity of this type of utility. The Asian continent is positioned as the most affected by the attack, with India being one of the most affected countries.

The user who downloaded and installed one of these applications, initially, would not have suffered any danger… until he decided to uninstall it.The application, at the time the user installed it, created a shortcut as soon as it was first opened, but invisible to the user's list of applications. From that moment on, the user began to see pornographic ads as soon as the terminal was unlocked, as well as malicious ads (with fraudulent content and pornography) that appeared in the Internet browser. During the analysis carried out by Trend Micro, it was discovered that one of the ads invited the user to download a paid online pornography player but, when downloaded, it did not work.

Fake awards and theft of personal photos

Likewise, many of the ads that were shown to the user invited them to give their personal information, address and telephone number, with the alibi of being legitimate pages. The pop-up ads that were displayed offered substantial prizes that could be won if the user answered three questions correctly.The result was always favorable to the user who, confident, delivered all their data in the forms that were given to them.

The thing did not stop here. Further investigation revealed another batch of rogue apps that offered the user a nice assortment of filters for their images. The user, in order to apply the beauty filters, had to upload the images to an external server. But they never received them: in exchange they were given fake update notices in nine different languages. The images were collected for malicious purposes, such as serving as the main image on fake social media accounts.

Google has already removed all the applications that were affected by the analysis, although the user cannot lower his guard. If almost thirty were found today, another day it could be as many.The best advice we can give ordinary users is to always look at the opinions of users. If you have numerous downvotes, please try another app.