You should probably uninstall ES File Manager right now

It all started a few days ago with a publication on BuzzFeed News, where it was claimed that some apps from DO Global had been running processes in the background in order to get clicks on advertising banners. By doing this, the Chinese developer used its applications to click on ads, obviously without the user’s permission and without the user knowing this was happening at the time. This happened even if the app was not active.

After this scandal became known, Google removed some apps from its Play Store such as Total Cleaner, Smart Cooler and RAM Master, all owned by DO Global. ES File Manager was exempt from the sanction for a few more days, since its developer is ES Global (owned by DU Global, a subsidiary of DO Global). It’s a mess of developers that hasn’t stopped Google from pulling the plug on it.

While its popularity has declined in recent years, partly because the default file managers of smartphones have improved greatly but also because of the growing number of ads third-party apps incorporate, ES File Manager accumulated more than 100 million downloads with an average rating of 4.6 stars. If you still have this app installed on your smartphone, we recommend that you delete it immediately, as well as all other ES Global applications.