30 days ago, Google announced a ban on crypto-mining apps in the Play Store, a move designed to cut down on apps that secretly mine coins in the background of devices. The company gave developers one month to change existing apps to comply with the new rules, but that time is up, and the Play Store should now be a mining-free zone. Only, it isn’t.
According to a cursory report from The Next Web, half of the apps it found mining crypto a month ago are still up and running, with seemingly no changes.
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Although the report isn’t a scientific survey of the Play Store, it’s safe to assume that if a handful of major apps can sneak through the cracks, dozens of smaller ones might be doing so as well:
Of the eight apps we found in our previous report, three have been removed – MinerGate, AA Miner, and Free BCH Miner. NeoNeonMiner, Crypto Miner PRO, Pickaxe Miner, and Pocket Miner all still remain, and only one of those, Bitcoin Miner, claims to have amended its offering to comply with the new terms.
As we pointed out in our previous coverage, there was one app that even managed to launch to the Play Store after the ban.
Google’s changes to Play Store policy don’t prohibit anything to do with crypto; it’s just on-device mining that is prohibited. Official apps from crypto exchanges, as well as apps that let you monitor mining on a different device, are still ok.
The changes to the Play Store came shortly after Apple introduced similar restrictions to its app store, which caused crypto prices to nosedive in short order.
