LONDON, March 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pixalate today announced the general availability of its DEFASED (DElisted From the App StorE) pre-bid blocklists for mobile apps, now identifying which countries each app has been delisted from.
Pixalate's DEFASED blocklists identify more than 7.8 million mobile apps removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The data is delivered as two daily feeds — one covering all delisted apps, and one filtered to delisted apps that are still generating ad impressions, according to Pixalate’s data.
When app stores remove an app, no automated mechanism alerts the ad ecosystem, including SSPs, exchanges, or DSPs. The app disappears from the storefront but can remain installed on millions of devices.
Malicious actors can exploit these delisted apps to generate invalid traffic (IVT) or harvest user data without platform oversight. Pixalate's DEFASED blocklists fill that gap.
DEFASED Apps: A Granular Risk Signal For Ad Tech
Pixalate surfaces granular micro risk signals — individual, measurable indicators of risk across the programmatic supply chain. Delisted apps (DEFASED) are one of these signals, alongside 40+ IVT types, Made for Advertising (MFA) flagging, abandoned apps, fraudulent CTV Bundle IDs, SSAI fraud, privacy compliance failure checks, arbitrage transaction flagging, and more.
Apps can be removed from stores for benign reasons, but also for reasons including:
- Ad Fraud & Malicious Activity: Malware, adware, IVT, compromised SDKs, deceptive behavior, or manipulated reviews — including cases tied to developer account termination.
- Privacy, Policy & Compliance: Non-compliance with store privacy guidelines, missing privacy policies, copyright violations, government-mandated removal, or sanctions compliance requirements.
- Security Abandonment: No security updates for multiple (3+) years.
New: Country-Level Delisted App Intelligence
An app removed from one country’s app store may still be available in the same store in other countries. Pixalate’s DEFASED blocklists include country codes to identify 100+ countries the app has been delisted from.
| Feed Type | Scope | Description |
| Global Delisted Apps | All stores | All apps removed from any app store globally. Used for proactive blocking. |
| Global Delisted Apps w/ Impressions | All stores | Removed apps that are still generating ad impressions, as measured by Pixalate. |
All feeds are updated daily (estimated availability 12:00 PM) and delivered as CSV via FTP.
Use Cases: DEFASED Data Feeds
For SSPs & Exchanges
- Proactive Blocking: Remove all apps no longer authorized by official stores — including apps not yet generating impressions.
- Block Delisted Apps With Impressions: Block removed apps still actively serving ads.
- Region-Specific Filtering: Use country-level intelligence to filter apps delisted in specific markets while preserving inventory that remains authorized in other regions.
- Real-Time Filtering: Check App and Bundle IDs against Pixalate’s Enrichment API for live app delisting status.
For DSPs & Agencies
- Pre-Bid Filtering: Automatically exclude App IDs flagged as DEFASED from campaign targeting.
- Brand Reputation: Prevent ad spend from reaching developers banned for potential privacy and policy violations.
- Market-Level Compliance: Apply region-specific blocking to campaigns targeting specific geographies.
Data Schema
All DEFASED pre-bid blocklist data feeds share the schema below:
| Column Name | Type | Description |
| osName | STRING | Operating system of the delisted app. |
| appId | STRING | Unique app identifier. Numeric trackId for iOS; package name for Android. |
| bundleId | STRING | Bundle identifier for iOS apps. For Android, matching should be done on appId. |
| lastSeen | STRING | Date the app was removed from the app store |
| appStoreUrl | STRING | Original storefront URL. Delisted apps return HTTP 404. |
| appStoreName | STRING | Store the app was removed from (e.g., Google Play, Roku Channel Store). |
| delistedCountryCodes | Array | List of countries in which the app has been removed from app storefronts. |
Availability
DEFASED data is available via:
- FTP data feeds: Daily CSV blocklists
- Enrichment API: Programmatic lookup of delisted status by App ID
- Analytics and MRT dashboard: Search and filter through Pixalate’s UI
- AWS RTB Fabric: Module for delisted apps filtering
About Pixalate
Pixalate is a global platform specializing in privacy compliance, ad fraud prevention, and digital ad supply chain data intelligence. Founded in 2012 and recognized by UNICEF as a “key innovator” for children’s online privacy, Pixalate is trusted by regulators, data researchers, advertisers, publishers, ad tech platforms, and financial analysts across the Connected TV (CTV), mobile app, and website ecosystems. Pixalate is accredited by the MRC for the detection and filtration of Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT). pixalate.com
Disclaimer
The content of this press release reflects Pixalate's opinions with respect to factors that Pixalate believes may be useful to the digital media industry. Any data shared is grounded in Pixalate’s proprietary technology and analytics, which Pixalate is continuously evaluating and updating. Any references to outside sources should not be construed as endorsements. Pixalate's opinions are just that, opinions, which means that they are neither facts nor guarantees. Pixalate is sharing this data not to impugn the standing or reputation of any entity, person or app, but, instead, to report findings and trends pertaining to programmatic advertising activity across mobile apps in the time period studied.
Per the MRC, “‘Fraud’ is not intended to represent fraud as defined in various laws, statutes and ordinances or as conventionally used in U.S. Court or other legal proceedings, but rather a custom definition strictly for advertising measurement purposes. Also per the MRC, ‘Invalid Traffic’ is defined generally as traffic that does not meet certain ad serving quality or completeness criteria, or otherwise does not represent legitimate ad traffic that should be included in measurement counts. Among the reasons why ad traffic may be deemed invalid is it is a result of non-human traffic (spiders, bots, etc.), or activity designed to produce fraudulent traffic.”
Contact: press@pixalate.com
