Google Play Store App Rejections Up 55% From Last Year, App Suspensions Up 66%

In a year-in-review announcement today, Google said Play Store app rejections went up 55% last year after the OS maker tightened up its app review process. From a report: Similarly, stats for app suspensions also went up, by more than 66%, according to Google, which the company credited to its continued investment in 'automated protections and human review processes that play critical roles in identifying and enforcing on bad apps.' One of the most significant roles in the automated systems cited by Google in identifying malware is the Google Play Protect service, which is currently included by default with the official Play Store app. Google said this service now scans over 50 billion apps per day, and even goes as far as downloading and scanning every Android app it finds on the internet.

Play Store's automated systems are now getting better and better at detecting threats, so much so that Google is now seeing clear patterns. 'We find that over 80% of severe policy violations are conducted by repeat offenders and abusive developer networks,' Ahn said. 'When malicious developers are banned, they often create new accounts or buy developer accounts on the black market in order to come back to Google Play.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.