GOOGLE has banned several apps developed by the Chinese e-commerce company Pinduoduo.
Pinduoduo Inc. is a Chinese online retailer that boasts more than 800 million users worldwide.
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And its apps are filled with malware designed to track users, the tech giant said on Tuesday.
As a security measure, Google has suspended Pinduoduo’s official app on Google Play.
It has also enforced Google Play Protect, which checks apps installed on Android phones for malicious behavior.
“Google Play Protect enforcement has been set to block installation attempts of these identified malicious apps,” a Google spokesperson said.
“Users that have malicious versions of the app downloaded to their devices are warned and prompted to uninstall the app.”
Online publication TechCrunch conducted a test to confirm Google has indeed been blocking attempts to download the malware-infested Chinese apps.
When users try, they are faced with a warning that says the apps try to “bypass Android’s security protections,” TechCrunch reported.
The alarms about Pinduoduo were first sounded a few weeks ago by Chinese security researchers.
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Pinduoduo also confirmed in a statement to CNN that it was informed by Google Play on Tuesday morning that its app had been “temporarily suspended.”
The reason the Chinese-based company cited is that the app is “not compliant with Google’s Policy.”
In another statement, Pinduoduo rejected “the speculation and accusation that the Pinduoduo app is malicious just from a generic and non-conclusive response from Google.”
