The company announced on Thursday that Google had pulled nearly 600 “disruptive” Android apps from the Play Store and suspended their creators in their new efforts to stop mobile ad abuse. Google’s rules do not require advertisements to show if a program is not in use or deceive users to accidentally click on advertising.
According to Per Bjorke, Google’s senior product manager for ad traffic quality who writes the company’s blog post, it describes disruptive advertising as “information shown to users unforeseeable, like impeding or messing with the accessibility of system features” like the full-screen ad that occurs during a phone call or using navigation software.
Bjorke also states that a machine-learning method has been developed to help accurately spot non-context advertising in applications, adding to today’s prohibition. “Malicious developers tend to be more advanced in using and masking harmful advertising, but to defend them against this activity, we have developed new technology ourselves,” Bjorke said.
BuzzFeed News reports that most of the applications observed infringed were developers based in China, India, and Singapore. Most devices were geared at English-speaking customers. Repeat Cheetah Mobile, a publicly-traded Chinese-based company, had more than 40 of its apps in this latest wave of prohibitions yanked from the play store.
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Bjorke said that the accused developers seemed to have used similar techniques to avoid detection, though he did not know whether this was a coordinated effort. Google would offer refunds to advertisers where the irritating pop-ups may have influenced advertising, he said.
It is not Google’s first time taking such measures against developers, but today’s operation seems to be the biggest ad fraud campaign to date. In July Google banned the use of an adware extension by Chinese developer CooTek that sends consumers offensive advertisements even when a device has not been in operation.
