A new report focuses on how VivaVideo, one of the biggest free video editing apps for Android, with at east 100 million installs on the Play store, is a Chinese "spyware" app. The app asks for a wide host of dangerous permissions, including the ability to read and write files to external drives, plus the user’s specific GPS location (which is definitely not needed for a video editing app), claims VPNpro.
According to VPNpro, VivaVideo has a history of malware. In 2017, it was mentioned as one of 40 apps suspected of spyware in a country-wide advisory for all Indian military and paramilitary troops, with a recommendation to delete the apps immediately. The app in question is developed by QuVideo Inc., a Chinese company based in Hangzhou, which also creates SlidePlus (1M installs), with similarly unnecessary dangerous permissions, plus a paid version of VivaVideo. In addition, VPNpro found 5 total apps within its network.