Google has removed over 2 million malicious apps from the Play Store.

The company also blocked more than 1.3 million apps that attempted to gain excessive access to users’ personal data and removed more than 158,000 suspicious developer accounts. Google is stepping up its fight against malware.

Google Play Protect, its built-in security system that scans apps in real time, analyzed more than 200 billion apps every day last year. This allowed it to detect more than 13 million new malicious apps distributed outside of Google Play. To better combat malicious apps, Google is introducing three important updates:

• Users will no longer be able to turn off Play Protect during a call, making it impossible for scammers to manipulate it.
  In Chrome for Android, if Play Protect is turned off, users will receive a notification to turn it on.
• Apps that are not used for a long time automatically lose access to sensitive data such as photos, cameras, and storage.
• Google has also introduced new transparency requirements for developers, including the ability to remove personal data from apps that collect user information.

The company has also strengthened its protection against financial fraud, blocking 36 million malicious attempts to install more than 200,000 potentially dangerous apps. Google said that more than 92% of its checks for suspicious apps are carried out using artificial intelligence. The company says it will continue to improve Play Protect to further reduce the number of malicious apps on the platform.