I wonder if this is referring to the Play Store itself, or some apps on it.

…okay, so it says they were spyware.

…spyware like, oh, I don't know, Facebook, and tons of other proprietary apps? What exactly is the news here? GoogleApps itself comes with what could be called spyware!

Wait…

the researchers saw that after running the check, the malware downloaded a ZIP file to install the actual malware, which hacks the phone and steals data from it.

So that is what's new! I'd say this is more of a problem of the vulnerability that allows it to hack the phone in the first place than of Google! What is the vulnerability though, and is there an available update to fix it? And if it can access so much, could it be used for the good of allowing one to root their Android computer?