Most of the past two months I have spent trying to get various publishers of antivirus software and apps to remove my app from their lists of malware. Which was much harder than I thought it would be. Execpt for a few apps, the lists of malware seem to be more based on hear-say than facts. And when an antivirus software had got a “malicious” app on its list in the first place, it would not let it go without a fight. It seemed as if some publishers of antivirus apps were saying that ”we have made up out mind, so don’t confuse us with facts”. As a representative of AVG wrote to me: ”In any case we are not removing the detection for this app“.
Anyway; I finally got most of the antivirus apps that once had listed my app as malware to remove it from their list of malware. Of the antivirus apps/softwares that once listed my app as a threat on VirusTotal, the following have now removed it from their list of threats: - AhnLab - AntiVir - Baidu-International - BitDefender - Eset - ForeSafe (removed it from their Android App, is not included on VirusTotal) - Ikarus - Qihuu-360 - QuickHeal (removed it from their Android App, is not included on VirusTotal) - Trustlook (removed it from their “Antivurs Security” Android App, not included on VirusTotal) - Vipre Please see: https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/6346c6f089551b8d3de3ef80d44134dcbc1fb3dc5e7d1df44a0b19a6bba490cc/analysis/1400573103/ Of those AntiVirus softwares that still list my app on VirusTotal; - Avast has changed its characterization from a Trojan to a PUP - Kaspersky lists it as a PUP (“not-a-virus”) - Sophos say they “cannot remove it, as it is a PUA” - Gdata does not list it as a threat in their Android “Internet Security” app, but still does on VirusTotal - Avast and McAfee have still not responded to my removal requests - McAfee does currently not list in on their Android antivirus app So; Currently no antivirus app lists it as a VIRUS, but THREE (of 53) show an unclear characterization. If the listings of my app being a PUP/PUA refers to the possibility to abuse such an Anti-Theft app to get to location of the user of the phone, ALL Anti-Theft have the same features – and much more. Inclusive most of the antivirus apps themselves. E.g. see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MXUO0-lhbY And all of those apps have NOT been removed. With this documentation, I wrote an email to Google Play Support., with an appeal to reinstate my app. I also went through all of its features in detail, showing that it must be the most innocent of all anti-theft apps. As my app is neither a virus nor a spy app, I assumed that it was removed by a mistake, and so I hoped that it would be reinstated. But Google did not even bother to send me a reply. A few years back I was very enthusiastic about Android apps and Google. Not any more. I am extremely disappointed with Google. They seem to handle us app developers extremely haphazard, badly, and unfairly. Regarding their Policies for developers, Google is both acting as lawmaker, police, prosecuting authority, judge and executioner. Needless to say, I am not very fond of Google any more. I hope that someone within Google is reading this, and who is willing to look into this case. I can provide all info required, including the source code of the app in question. Terry On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7:24:58 AM UTC+1, Terry wrote: > > Google has removed my app from the Play Store. > > Now I would like to know WHY. > > The Reason for Removal was "Dangerous Product". > > The app is the free "Theif Face Trap Mini", or TFTM, with > id=com.terboel.tftm > > For those who would have a look at it, it can still be found at various > places, e.g. at the 1Mobile Market. > > Regards, Terry > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
