It might come as a shocker for the tech-enabled people but for those who love to try every app present in the play store, then their device and data might be exposed to threats and hacks. The recent reports suggest that Google has removed 22 apps from its app store as they were allegedly draining battery from the user’s mobile phone and created a hushed gateway through which the app was downloading the files from the device without the permission of the administrator.

According to a report published by Ars Technica,the deleted apps are said to have clocked more than 2 million user downloads inPlay Store. The deleted apps secretly downloaded files from the attacker-controlled server confirmed the report.

However, the Android experts are of the thought that the search giant, Google is already late in doing damage control since a large number of users might have latched onto those fraudulent ads and paid the price. An Antivirus provider Sophos wrote in a recent blog that the malicious apps might have entered the play store between the years 2016-2017.

The names of the 22 apps removed by Google Play Store are: Space Rocket, Neon Pong, Sparkle FlashLight, Snake Attack, Tak A Trip, Magnifeye, Join Up, Math Solver, shape sorter, Cliff Diver, Box Stack,Just Flashlight, Table Soccer, Color Tiles, Animal Match, Jelly Slice, AKBlackjack, Hexa Blocks and PairZap and Roulette Mania, Hexa Fall.

The biggest concern from the user’s perspective is these apps not only involved an increased amount of battery consumption due to continuous running of the app in the background but also the fact that the devices are held hostage to the attacker- controller servers which can install harmful files as and when they wish.