‘We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices,’ Google’s updated Play Store policy states. ‘We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency.’
Google is following Apple’s lead to ban cryptocurrency-mining apps from its store.
As Android Police reports, Google updated its Play Store developer policy to put the kibosh on cryptocurrency miners. “We don’t allow apps that mine cryptocurrency on devices,” the updated policy states . “We permit apps that remotely manage the mining of cryptocurrency.”
A quick search in the Google Play Store still turns up a number of apps designed to mine Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment as to whether it plans to remove them.
Google’s updated policy, meanwhile, also bans “apps that facilitate the sale of explosives, firearms, ammunition, or certain firearms accessories.”
Apple last month updated its own App Store review guidelines with an explicit ban on any software that mines cryptocurrencies over the device. Apple makes an exception for “cloud-based mining,” in which the virtual currencies are remotely generated off the device.
Google’s new policy isn’t too much of a shock. The company in April banned extensions that mine cryptocurrency from the Chrome Web Store. Before that, Google allowed cryptocurrency-mining extensions as long as mining was the extension’s only purpose, and users were adequately informed about it.
“Unfortunately, approximately 90 percent of all extensions with mining scripts that developers have attempted to upload to Chrome Web Store have failed to comply with these policies, and have been either rejected or removed from the store,” Google’s Extensions Platform Product Manager James Wagner noted at the time. Many of the extensions that got the boot contained hidden cryptocurrency mining scripts that ran in the background without a user’s consent.
Google also recently banned all cryptocurrency advertising across its flagship search and display ad businesses. Google no longer serves ads related to cyptocurrencies and related content, “including but not limited to initial coin offerings, cryptocurrency exchanges, cryptocurrency wallets, and cryptocurrency trading advice,” the company has said. Facebook rolled out a similar ban in January, and Twitter followed suit in March.
