Google has partnered with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) to test the blocking of high-level permission apps outside the Play Store. This trial is currently limited to Singapore.
These high-level permissions include receiving and reading SMS messages, reading notifications, and accessibility. These permissions are often exploited by malicious individuals to create money-siphoning apps. It has been observed that these criminals typically deceive victims into installing these apps, with 95% of installations occurring outside the Play Store.
While Google Play Protect warns and blocks installations, perpetrators may deceive victims into disabling Google Play Protect (except for users of Google Advanced Protection, who cannot disable it at all).
Google has stated that it will assess the outcome of this experiment and make necessary adjustments. This new measure is a step up from last year’s efforts, where Google attempted to block these money-siphoning apps with Google Play Protect. It identified over 500,000 instances of these apps and sent more than 3 million alerts.
TLDR: Google is collaborating with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore to test the blocking of high-level permission apps outside the Play Store. These permissions are commonly misused by criminals to create money-siphoning apps. Although Google Play Protect warns and blocks installations, victims can be deceived into disabling it. Google aims to analyze the results of this trial and make necessary changes. In previous efforts, Google identified over 500,000 instances of such apps and sent more than 3 million alerts.
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