TrendMicro has discovered 36 apps in Google Play that execute unwanted behavior:
These apps posed as useful security tools under the names Security Defender, Security Keeper, Smart Security, Advanced Boost, and more. They also advertised a variety of capabilities: scanning, cleaning junk, saving battery, cooling the CPU, locking apps, as well as message security, WiFi security, and so on.
The apps were actually able to perform these simple tasks, but they also secretly harvested user data, tracked user location, and aggressively pushed advertisements.
The apps in question have been removed from Google Play.
Related: Google Pauses Crackdown on Apps That Use Accessibility Features
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 05 2018, @11:18PM (1 child)
So they try to make you sign away the copyrights and patents for your patch to them, or is it more broad than that?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 06 2018, @12:54AM
The legal statement you're supposed to sign conveys to the FSF any future rights and patents that might in some way be connected back to your patch; on paper, you're basically giving up participation in the patent/copyright system, which is exactly what the FSF wants.
The FSF only likes copyright law insofar as it can be hacked into supporting the copyleft philosophy.