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posted by Fnord666 on Monday April 27 2020, @12:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the app-network dept.

Google has reportedly removed more than 100 apps:

Google has reportedly removed more than 100 apps with tens of millions of downloads after allegations the apps were part of a co-ordinated group that may have violated store policies.

The group allegedly involves at least 27 separate app developers (that could also be pseudonyms), according to tech outlet CyberNews.

The outlet alleges the apps were made (and often ripped off from other developers, including some in the alleged network) to generate ad revenue.

Most of the apps are simple ones focusing on things like scanning PDFs and making photo collages, likely deliberately chosen because they provide sought after services people want quickly and are likely to download them without thinking too hard about it.

The research alleges the group's apps were downloaded 69 million times and could have been generating $US10,000 a month, or even up to $US1 million, though they say it's likely to be on the lower end of that spectrum.

But the apps don't appear to require much work to make and publish on the Google Play Store, which is what initially raised the suspicions of the researchers, after discovering links between different developers.

The app developers mostly have a first name-last name style developer name usually featuring Western-style names, which might seem like a tenuous link at first, but it goes deeper.

[...] The research doesn't conclusively reveal where the network is based, but all the evidence seems to point towards Asia, with Vietnamese postcodes on some developer pages, and references to Chinese telecoms in the code of some actual apps.


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  • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday April 28 2020, @01:47AM (1 child)

    by Magic Oddball (3847) on Tuesday April 28 2020, @01:47AM (#987688) Journal

    That doesn't really explain why young people who have spent their entire lives in the US are be so prone to placing the dollar sign in the wrong place; they're not following a standard, just making a mistake.

    My theory is that it's just one of the many things that weren't required of them as kids; many of them also mangle English in the same ways that an ESL student learning primarily from watching television shows might.

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  • (Score: 2) by mmh on Wednesday April 29 2020, @05:03PM

    by mmh (721) on Wednesday April 29 2020, @05:03PM (#988244)

    My point was, what you are calling a "mistake" is not.

    The "correct" way of placing a dollar sign is defined by a style guide, there are many style guides to choose from. Some say $15 is correct, others say it is 15$.

    It's kind of like phone numbers, according to the NANP all phone numbers should be formatted 800-555-1234, but if you've ever seen a business card, you've seen: 1-800-555-1234, 1 (800) 555 1234, (800)-555-1234, etc... None of those are "incorrect", though you may not like them.

    Just because you prefer $15 does not make it correct, and the only time calling someone out on it makes sense is if you're part of an organization that dictates a specific style.