Within hours of the news breaking that Vidmate’s app was engaged in similar suspicious behavior, his company saw Snaptube’s suspicious activity drop almost immediately. Mango is particularly sneaky, said Krief. Mango was also used in Vidmate, a similar video downloader app also accused of ad fraud behavior, as well as 4shared, a cloud storage app.Īccording to Uptream, this third-party code kit downloads additional components from a central server in order to engage in this fraudulent ad activity, and uses chains of redirection and obfuscation to hide its activity. The company pinned the blame on a third-party software development kit (SDK) code, known as Mango, embedded inside Snaptube’s app. Krief said the only indication that a user’s device might be used in this way is if their mobile data usage increases, their device gets warm and the battery runs out faster than usual. The app also uses the same background click technique to rack up charges for premium purchases the user never requested.

Upstream’s chief executive Guy Krief said users are served invisible ads without their knowledge that run silently on the device, allowing the app maker to generate ad revenue at the expense of churning up a user’s mobile data and battery power.

The app’s developer says that the app is “safe” to use.īut researchers at London-based security firm Upstream, which shared its findings exclusively with TechCrunch, said the free app ends up costing consumers. Some third-party app stores estimate Snaptube has been downloaded more than a billion times to date. The app, developed in China, is not on Google Play because the app maker claims Google will not allow video downloader apps on the store. Snaptube, which boasts some 40 million users, allows users to download videos and music from YouTube, Facebook and other major video sites. A popular video downloader app for Android has been found generating fake ad clicks and unauthorized premium purchases from its users, according to a security firm.

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