List of known apps with aggressive ads

[chanchan05]

Basically I got a small list of apps with known aggressive ads (pop ups on homescreen, lockscreen takeover ads, etc). Let's add to this list!

1. Dream Shell Icons
2. Apps by EpicOmegaApps
3. Apps by PINWHEEL
4. Snap Pic Collage Color Splash
5. Super-Bright LED Flashlight/Torch
6. ES App Locker and ES File Explorer
7. GO apps (GO Keyboard, GO Launcher, etc)
8. KittyPlay
9. Peel Remote App
10. Photo Editor Pro
11. TouchPal apps
12. VideoShow video editor
13. Xender
14. Zero Team Apps (Z Camera, etc)
15. HiFont
16. Battery Doctor
17. FotoRus
18. UC Browser
19. Apps2SD
20. 360Security
21. LOCX: App Lock
22. XBrowser
23. Solo Launcher
24. Dolphin Browser
25. Amber Weather
26. PIP Camera
27. KingoRoot
28. Power Security Antivirus
29. TxtStory

 

[B. Diddy]

Ooh, great idea!

 

[chanchan05]

Ooh, great idea!

Yeah. It would be nice if we can have people contributing to the list and we can sticky. At least that way we can just link and say, 'look here, if you have any of those, uninstall.'

 

[B. Diddy]

What? No Cheetah Mobile apps listed? Or is that such a given that there's no need to list them?

I'm going to sticky this thread so people can see it easily.

 

[chanchan05]

What? No Cheetah Mobile apps listed? Or is that such a given that there's no need to list them?

I'm going to sticky this thread so people can see it easily.

Well technically they're data miners right? Not aggro ads? I haven't tried them so I don't know how they do ads. These are stuff I encountered and lists from Malwarebytes and Symantec before on aggro ads.

 

[B. Diddy]

Oh yeah -- I was thinking of a different kind of shady ad practices: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/articl...oid-apps-cheetah-mobile-kika-kochava-ad-fraud

 

[Javier P]

One more for the list that I uninstalled from a friend's phone, Power Security Antivirus.

There are hundreds of posts in the forums about these intrusive ads and a generic list of the apps pushing them include many categories: calculator, flashlight, keyboard, camera, antivirus, photo editor, PDF reader, free games ...

In general this kind of apps have several bad reviews in the Play Store where users reported these annoying ads. My recommendation is to take a couple of minutes reading the reviews before installing any app and, of course, leave a one start review if you had this problem.

 

[chanchan05]

One more for the list that I uninstalled from a friend's phone, Power Security Antivirus.

There are hundreds of posts in the forums about these intrusive ads and a generic list of the apps pushing them include many categories: calculator, flashlight, keyboard, camera, antivirus, photo editor, PDF reader, free games ...

In general this kind of apps have several bad reviews in the Play Store where users reported these annoying ads. My recommendation is to take a couple of minutes reading the reviews before installing any app and, of course, leave a one start review if you had this problem.

Added. Thanks. You know I'm really curious as to why people install these kinds of apps. Sure even if you want to install an AV just so you have something to do the thinking of whether an app is malicious or not for you, why go for the weird brands and not the more well known ones like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, AVG, etc.

 

[Javier P]

Added. Thanks. You know I'm really curious as to why people install these kinds of apps. Sure even if you want to install an AV just so you have something to do the thinking of whether an app is malicious or not for you, why go for the weird brands and not the more well known ones like Kaspersky, Bitdefender, AVG, etc.

Yeah, I would love to have the right answer for that

 

[Toto39]

People see adds for them via Facebook and install them because the ad says your phone is infected. I deal with customers that will have 3+ AV, cleaner, and security apps due to this everyday.

 

[Javier P]

People see adds for them via Facebook and install them because the ad says your phone is infected. I deal with customers that will have 3+ AV, cleaner, and security apps due to this everyday.

Good point.

 

[Akshayshinde]

I think you guys forgot about youtube

 

[B. Diddy]

YouTube doesn't serve up aggressive ads that popup and take over your screen. It gives you ads if you don't subscribe to YouTube Premium. If you subscribe, the ads go away.

 

[Gary Smith6]

Hey guys. I came across a post SOMEWHERE (god im kicking myself now!!!!) Of a guy that installed an app that blocked all the other apps permissions. He said it seemed to be working fine but had only just started testing. Anyone know what was used? Might have been a hacker with his own code, dammit, can't remember

 

[Almeuit]

I think you guys forgot about youtube

There is a difference in normal ads versus aggressive ads. YouTube normally has ads just like Hulu does unless you pay. That is normal. Aggressive ads are things like take-over-phone ads.

 

[chanchan05]

Hey guys. I came across a post SOMEWHERE (god im kicking myself now!!!!) Of a guy that installed an app that blocked all the other apps permissions. He said it seemed to be working fine but had only just started testing. Anyone know what was used? Might have been a hacker with his own code, dammit, can't remember

There's an app called Bouncer in the Play Store. It only gives temporary permissions to apps when you use those apps, then blocks them off if they're not active. At least that's how I understood it. I don't have apps that I feel I need to treat that way, so I don't use it.

 

[TechTimid]

Thanks for posting that list, I'm new to apps and am wary of loading any that may be troublesome to have on my phone. I haven't loaded any yet, but will refer to this listing before I do.

 

[chanchan05]

Not all of them are data miners. They just show Ads really frequently.
Actually wished you tried them out first

That post was referring specifically to Cheetah apps. Which are apps that should never be installed in the phone as they already confessed to data mining as a company policy.

 

[wenso smith]

Thanks for sharing the useful post...

 

[Rukbat]

Or, as in my case, if it has ads, I don't use it. And I'm sure a lot of others feel the same. As many pennies (and it's pennies) a developer makes from adds, he probably drives the same amount of business away. the re are plenty of free apps (Someone write something just to see if he can, it works, so he releases it) that do the same thing. (Especially apps that can be written in a couple of hours - and especially since so many people seem to be intent on learning how to "make apps" - things like flashlights, file viewers, etc., are the kind of apps they can do.)