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According to a survey conducted by Kochava, an application analysis company, eight applications for Android, which generate nearly 2 billion downloads, allegedly used user permissions to commit advertising fraud.
In the list of identified applications are Clean Master, CM File Manager, CM Launcher 3D, Master Security, Battery Doctor, CM Locker, Cheetah Keyboard and Kika Keyboard. Some of them, such as Clean Master, used to free space, and Kika Keyboard, an Android keyboard that can send a wide range of emoticons, are among the most popular from the Google Play store.
According to the report published by BuzzFeed News, the first seven applications were developed by Cheetah Mobile, a Chinese company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and accused of fraudulent business practices last year. Kika KeyBoard, in turn, belongs to Kika Tech, a Chinese company based in Silicon Valley. According to the report Both companies have more than 700 million active users per month for their mobile applications.
The report reveals that companies have developed an advertising fraud scheme in which they took advantage of the permissions of these apps to track user behavior in other Android apps.
The problem is that they have been fraudulently attributed the merit of the downloads of other applications to charge a commission. According to the research company, application developers pay fees to partners who help promote new installations of their applications. These companies followed when users downloaded new applications (because the permissions allowed them to follow keystrokes or see when other applications were downloaded) and used this data to claim credits inappropriately.
Both development companies denied the allegations. In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Cheetah Mobile said: "Advertising platforms and independent parties to arbitration work together to decide on the allocation of application features, and we do not not part of this process .. day if we have more information. "
In its latest quarterly results, Cheetah reported revenue of $ 196 million from "utility and related services".
Another report from BuzzFeed News, released in October, revealed that more than 125 Android apps were being exploited as part of a massive fraud scheme to generate fake traffic and steal money from advertisers. Google estimated that about $ 10 million had been obtained through this scheme.
Source: Weather / GDA
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