KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT UC BROWSER BAN ON PLAYSTORE
UC Browser has disappeared from the Google Play store. The Alibaba-owned mobile browser, which garnered more than 500 million downloads last month and has over 100 million users in India, is no longer visible on search - though other UCWeb applications - UC Browser Mini and UC News - still are. The development emerges months after the Chinese app had been accused of sending personal data of its Indian users to a server in China, and it's unclear for now what the reason for the removal is.
The removal of UC Browser from Google Play was spotted by users and reported late on Tuesday. Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii also posted the text of an email that he received from UC Union (UCWeb's affiliate network) that suggests some conflict between Google and UCWeb. The UC Union email, which was said to be circulated on November 9, warns partners to abandon "all misleading/malicious advertising" ways that are being used to procure new users.
Twitter user Mike Ross, who claims to work for UC Browser, tweeted that the browser is "temporarily
removed" from the Play Store for 30 days due to adopting "misleading" and "unhealthy" methods of increasing installs.
We've reached out to Google and UCWeb for clarity and will update this space accordingly.
According to a report on Android Central, which has shared contents of the mail, the reason for the take down could be “malicious redirect ads served up by UC Web’s affiliates to inflate installs.” The entire email has been shared on Reddit. Also a Twitter user named Mike Ross, who works with UC Browser posted a tweet explaining the app was taken down for a similar reason.
He wrote, “I work for UC Browser, I got mail today morning it said that UC Browser was temporarily removed from play store for 30 days because it used “Misleading” and “Unhealthy” methods of promotion to increase installs.”
The app take down appears to be temporary and UC Browser should be back in the store after 30 days. Google is taking a strict stance on apps using dubious tricks to increase install base or spread ad malware to steal user information. Google has also introduced a ‘Verified by Play Protect’ feature, which aims to keep out harmful apps from a user’s phone.
