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Submitting apps to the Google Play Store requires a review and developers need to comply with Google’s guidelines for their apps to be accepted. While sometimes a bit restrictive, the upside is that apps downloaded from the Play Store are generally thought to be safe, but that isn’t the case with one particular app.
In a recent blog post from Essential Security, researcher Lukas Stefanko discovered an app called iRecorder Screen Recorder which was doing more than what the app advertised. Basically it seems that the app has been secretly recording the audio of its users every 15 minutes and then forwarding those records to the developer’s server.
What’s alarming is that this app actually started out innocent enough, where it was intended to be a simple screen recording app. Unfortunately, according to Stefanko’s discovery, the app was updated back in August 2022 where it included malicious code which then turned the app into spyware.
The app has been downloaded over 50,000 times to date but it has since been removed after it was reported. 50,000 downloads is admittedly quite a small number considering the number of Android users out there, but it also means that there are over 50,000 potential victims who might have had their privacy violated. So if you do have the app on your phone, it’s time to delete it.
Source: Ars Technica
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