Check the star ratings the app has gotten.

How do I protect myself from downloading these malicious Android apps? Before Downloading: Talking to Buzzfeed, Guy Krief said that Android’s open nature allowed for the wide distribution of mobile malware and that the digital advertising’s complexity empowers fraudsters as it is a worldwide playground with low risks and high incentives. If you already have it, go ahead and uninstall it.

Vidmate has so far been removed from the Play Store where it had over 500 million downloads but can now be found on other non-official Android app stores. Vidmate was developed by UCWeb, a subsidiary of Alibaba before it got sold off last year. What is more worrying is that the app started collecting personal data from its users from IMEI(International Mobile Equipment Identity) number to IP addresses and IMSI(International Mobile Subscriber Identity) – all this without consent and sending the data to nonolive servers(this relationship has since been terminated) in Singapore, an Alibaba funded company. Right page showing “Thank You” after successful subscription The left page contains the “Join Now” button, which completes the subscription of a user. These views and clicks are then reported as genuine to ad networks. It does all this in the background without the users’ knowledge hence the increased depletion of mobile data and battery drain even when the phone is not in use.

When downloaded Vidmate would load Mango, a third party SDK that initiates the ad fraud by delivering ads to the users phone and simulate clicks to access and confirm paid subscriptions. Other issues users raised included reduced battery life even on idle state, unexpected mobile data use. The team crosschecked with reports from users who noticed that their phones were performing non-user initiated subscriptions. Their research revealed that these transactions came from 4.8 million unique devices across 15 countries and if they were not blocked, users were then subscribed to premium digital services that would have cost them up to $170 million in unwanted charges. Secure-D, Upstream’s security lab detected and blocked more than 128 million suspicious transactions started by the app. According to Upstream, your phone and its connection via Vidmate become part of a botnet that is used to commit ad fraud by showing ads that users can’t see- it does all this without your consent.

Vidmate app download android phone