Google has removed 85 apps from its Play Store after securityresearchers at Trend Micro found a particularly annoying adware hiding inside.

In a blog post, mobile threat response engineer at Trend Micro,Ecular Xu wrote that they have found another example of adware's potentialreal-life impact on Google Play. Trend Micro detects this asAndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH. "Apart from displaying advertisements that aredifficult to close, it employs unique techniques to evade detection throughuser behavior and time-based triggers," said Ecular Xu.

According to the company, majority of the apps that werediscovered were found to be disguised as photography as well as gaming apps andwere downloaded over eight million times.

The most popular among the 85 apps that were discovered by TrendMicro as being adware-infected are Super Selfie, Cos Camera, Pop Camera and OneStroke Line Puzzle.

According to report, the apps were uploaded on the Play Store fromdifferent developer accounts and were signed by different digital certificates butthey exhibited similar behaviours and shared the same code. It has been pointedby Trend Micro that this adware should ideally only affect phones running olderversions of Android.