Jan Youngren and VPNPro reported on a situation and got FAST results, it seems.
Shenzhen HAWK Internet Co., Ltd is a Chinese company that’s secretly developing 24 popular apps, totaling more than 382 million installs, with some apps containing malware and rogueware, and often participating in unethical practices.
Update (February 4): after our story was published, Zak Doffman at Forbes got in contact with Google, which swiftly removed all 24 apps in the Shenzhen network from the Play store. Google responded that they take reports of security and privacy violations seriously. “If we fin d behavior that violates our policies, we take action.”
Update (February 5): Shenzhen Hawk’s mega parent company, TCL Corporation, has now responded, claiming that they understand Google’s actions in removing all of the Shenzhen apps and are “actively working with them to better understand their concerns.” They are also planning on hiring an outside security consultant that will audit each of their apps to offer their customers “peace of mind and trust”.
Read their full coverage here.
h/t, Joe Cadillic