Starting in August, it can become more difficult to promote apps known as spyware or stalkerware on the Google platform.
Angela Lang / CNET
Google will add stalkerware apps to its list of services from August onwards, the advertising of which is prohibited on its platform, the company said in an update this month. The move should make it even more difficult to reach potential customers for the apps, which are also prohibited in the Google and Apple stores.
Stalkerware or spyware apps are annoyingly common. Tens of thousands of services are estimated to be available and allow someone who has access to your phone or cloud passwords to intercept your text, call logs and location while having access to your microphone and camera. You are associated with domestic violenceand are often used for illegal activities.
Google’s ad policies are one of many ways the technology sector and advocates have tried to limit the reach of app manufacturers. Google and Apple have also removed many of the apps from their platforms. In addition, a group of supporters, antivirus companies and legal experts founded the coalition against stalkerware. Antivirus companies have been looking for the best ways to identify the apps and warn users when there may be stalkerware on their phones. (CNET wrote a number of stories about these apps and their dangers earlier this year. They are listed in the box with the curated links below.)
The apps have thrived in a legal gray area. The law allows app manufacturers to promote the products as family security apps to track phone usage and children’s locations. However, since they often run completely in the background and do not contain any icons or notifications that inform the user that they are there, the apps are useful for people who want to spy on partners or exes without their consent.
In a Harris survey with NortonLifeLock, 1 in 10 people in the US said You used the apps to pursue an ex or partner.
Look at that:
How to find and delete stalkerware
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Google’s new policy allows app manufacturers to promote services “that parents can use to track or monitor their underage children.” This could cause apps with secret spy skills to use misleading, family-friendly messages when trying to advertise with Google. Under the hood, they can still behave like stalkerware apps, as security author Graham Cluley emphasized in a blog post on Friday.
According to Google, the company takes enforcement action against companies that hide the true purpose of their apps with fraudulent practices. The update adds spyware to the list of specific examples of services that Google cannot advertise because it “allows a user to gain unauthorized access to systems, devices, or properties (or make unauthorized changes)”. Other services currently listed by Google are “hacking services, cable theft, radar jammers, changing traffic signals, telephone or eavesdropping”.
In a statement, a Google spokesman said the company regularly updates its ad policies to ensure that users are protected.
“We have regularly updated our language with examples to clarify what we believe is against policy,” said the spokesman. “Spyware for partner monitoring has always been part of our policy against dishonest behavior.”