Here’s why Google removed Remove China Apps, Mitron app from Play Store (Express photo: Sneha Saha)
In just a matter of 24 hours, Google removed two viral apps — Mitron and Remove China Apps from Play Store downloaded by millions. The key reason behind removing the apps is that both violated Play Store’s policy, the tech giant confirmed. Google confirmed that Remove China Apps violated Google’s Deceptive Behaviour rules.
According to the Play Store rules, no app on Play store can encourage users to remove a third-party app which was the key idea behind the Remove China Apps. The app allowed users to find out China apps on their smartphones and then provided an option to instantly delete them.
Google’s policy reads, “We don’t allow apps that attempt to deceive users or enable dishonest behavior including but not limited to apps which are determined to be functionally impossible. Apps must provide an accurate disclosure, description, and images/video of their functionality in all parts of the metadata and should perform as reasonably expected by the user. Apps must not attempt to mimic functionality or warnings from the operating system or other apps. Any changes to device settings must be made with the user’s knowledge and consent and be easily reversible by the user.”
READ full story | Remove China Apps taken down from Google Play Store
The Remove China Apps developed by Jaipur based startup OneTouchAppLabs took to Twitter to confirm the removal of the app from Google Play Store. The app developer noted that the Remove China Apps doesn’t in any way “promote or force people to uninstall any of the application(s)” and is developed only “for educational purposes only.”
READ full report here | Remove China Apps: What is it?
In just 10 days the app was download by millions from Google Play store. People who have the app installed on their phones will still be able to use the application.
Remove China apps, Remove China apps launch, Remove China apps, is Remove China apps safe (Express photo: Sneha Saha)
A cybersecurity expert had said that unlike Mitron, the Remove China Apps is safe to use and one shouldn’t worry about downloading it on their Android smartphone. “The app scan focused on the installed android application package (APK) only. Hence, it doesn’t affect any change in stored personal data,” expert had said.
Before Remove China Apps, the so-called TikTok rival Mitron was taken down from Google Play Store. The app was taken down by Google for violating its spam and minimum functionality policy. The same policy also mentions that ‘repetitive content’ or an app without adding any original content or value’ amounts to a violation. Mitron was a complete trip-off of TikTok.
Besides that, Mitron had several security issues.
READ full story | Cyber expert has said Mitron app is ‘risky’
First, the app wasn’t made in India as it claimed and used the source code developed by a Pakistan coding company. Buying the source code was fine but the problem arised after it was reported that the app didn’t make changes to the code and rebranded it into Mitron app and published on Play Store. The app also didn’t make any changes in the privacy policy which means anyone who downloaded the app has his/her data at risky. It is recommended if you have the app downloaded on your phone remove it right away.