Before that, November 14: UC Browser on Android seems to have been removed from Google Play Store. The very popular browser on this phone has disappeared without a warning. This happened only weeks after UC Browser reached 500 million downloads on Google's app store.
If you do not know, UC Browser was developed by UC Web, a company of Alibaba Group of Jack Ma. On the phone, UC Browser is a favorite choice for many users, replacing Chrome in China, even in Vietnam. UC Browser also has a large fan base in India. Although Chrome is still trying to improve and has regained some advantages, in June, UC Browser became the favorite phone browser in India, there were times when it held more than 50% market share. This is also the 6th most downloaded Android application in India.
The disappearance of UC Browser is detected by a user on Reddit. Previously, in August, there were reports that UC Browser had a bad behavior of stealing user data and sending it to remote servers in China without the user's consent. According to an Indian report, in an extensive survey of data security, Indian government officials expressed concern that the UC Browser application continues to collect this data even when it was be uninstalled.
UC Browser has also been scrutinized for data security issues in the past. In 2015, Canadian researchers announced that the Chinese and English versions of UC Browser "easily provide third parties with personally identifiable information such as location, search details, mobile subscriber numbers. dynamics and equipment ".
There is currently no evidence to confirm or deny these doubts. UCWeb previously denied any wrongdoing, saying "will not do anything that violates user trust" and that "privacy and privacy are taken very seriously".
We will monitor any official information on this issue and update you. In the meantime, it should be noted that UC Browser Mini, a UC Browser replacement application is built for devices with weak hardware, still exists on Play Store.
See also: Firefox 57 Quantum here, great Mozilla!