{"id":129645,"date":"2019-02-11T20:06:28","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T20:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=129645"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:23:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:23:53","slug":"google-play-store-photo-stealing-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-play-store-photo-stealing-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Play Store: Fake camera apps that steal your photos discovered with millions of downloads"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cameras are one of the major features on all smartphones. We\u2019ve seen a battle recently between all the major smartphone manufacturers, all hoping to have their handsets crowned the best phone for photographers. New hardware features like multi-lens setups and software solutions like AI-assisted camera apps now allow us to capture magic moments better than we could ever have imagined<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Amazing Smartphone Camera Hack<\/p>\r\n Learn now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

As well as giving us the tools we need to document our lives, however, cameras can offer a new vulnerability for hackers to exploit. If we don\u2019t take the right precautions the very photos we take could end up in the wrong hands. Unfortunately, it looks like this could already be the case for millions of Android users.<\/p>\n

Millions of people have downloaded malicious camera apps that send their photos to third-party servers<\/h2>\n

In total, security researchers Trend Micro discovered 29 fake camera apps in the Google Play Store<\/a>. These apps offered a range of photography linked features from taking photos to applying edits and filters.<\/p>\n

The apps in question had no functionality at all. Rather than capturing images or applying edits, they\u2019d simply send the photo in question off to a third-party server before showing an error message on the victim\u2019s device. Some cases included the user being shown ads and even pornographic images. Furthermore, some of the apps, once installed, would try to hide themselves in order to make it as hard as possible for users to remove them from their devices.<\/p>\n

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Some incidents showed pornographic images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The full list of the fake camera apps discovered by Trend Micro is:<\/p>\n