Google RETRACTS and removes suspicious apps from “The best of 2017”

December 2, 2017, by Santiago Comment

The company posted disreputable apps on its list of Best of 2017 on Google Play United States. After all the Internet echoed the information, he has retracted and deleted the applications of his article.

The applications highlighted by Google in this ranking left concerns. But the one that topped the list was the most controversial, as we discovered (and Google has confirmed this with its step back). It was a photo application that works with more than 10 suspicious permissions on the cell phone. It even violates Google’s own policies.

Photo Editor, ten suspicious permissions and violation of Google policies

The name of the application is «Photo Editor – Beauty Camera & Photo Filters“, Which appears to be from an” independent “developer in Hong Kong, with around 10 million downloads and a rating of 4.2. Although this application serves its purpose, it hides dark intentions that the people who have rated it positive do not know.

A photo app should normally only have access to the camera and storage. Photo Editor has access to both and 10 more permissions. That allows you to make calls without user authorization and has full access to communication statistics. Your contact details can also be saved and shared without consent. You can control SMS and get your precise location, among many other possibilities.

Photo Editor presents itself as a photo editor, but it does things that the user has no idea and cannot control. The developer does not mention them in its description. For example, it has “optimizer” functions and suggests clearing RAM (which is repetitively harmful).

Google banned lockscreen advertising

Recently, Google prohibited that applications of this type put advertising on the lock screen and this is exactly what Photo Editor does with its “Smart Upload” function (we are still talking about an application to capture and edit photos). In other words, Google has promoted an application that violates its own policies.

And to this we must add the invasive and constant advertising that Photo Editor displays on the cell phone. Constant notifications, and even advertising popups in other applications. I witnessed them several times myself while writing this article in Evernote and browsing Google Chrome.

In conclusion, in its list of the best of 2017, Google has highlighted an application that deceives the user, deceives and violates the policies of the company itself. With all the powers that this app gets on the cell phone when it is installed, it can ONLY track its users (three out of four apps do) would be a relief.

Unfortunately, Google has retracted after the entire internet has already echoed this error. We have been able to capture the before and after, but it can be easily verified on the web.

If Google does not even review the applications that it is highlighting in this ranking, what can we expect from the rest of the applications on Google Play.

Obviously, it is not recommended to install this Google highlighted app. But anyway, you should know that you can deactivate the permissions of an application like this, to prevent it from having access to functions and data on your cell phone that it shouldn’t.

You can check the list ALREADY CORRECTED by Google on this page of his official blog and the old version here.