Mobile "Delisted From the App Store"(DEFASE) Global and Country-Level Lists

DEFASE stands for DElisted From the App StorE. The IVT type called “defasedApp” characterizes traffic seen from apps that were available for download through one of the two major app stores (namely Google Play and iTunes) over the last 12 months but got delisted and currently are not available any more.

In general, apps can be delisted for various reasons, including publisher level fraud, malware, adware, availability of backdoors for fraudsters to leverage bad SDKs, or simply because the developer decided to delist an app. In addition, it is also possible for an app to be delisted for other reasons such as copyright violations. So, clearly, not all delisted apps generate necessarily IVT. For this, Pixalate collects information about the behavior of a delisted app prior of it being delisted, and based on that, decides if an app should be flagged as IVT because it poses significant risks to the advertising ecosystem.

Pixalate has developed two datafeeds related to delisted apps:

A data feed containing all the removed apps from Google Play and iTunes store within the last 6 months. The friendly name for this data feed is “Defase App List”.
A data feed containing all the apps removed from Google Play and iTunes store within the last 6 months, which have generated impressions in the last 2 weeks and which also have shown evidence of suspicious or invalid behavior. The friendly name for this data feed is “Defase App Blocklist”.

Based on the above definitions, the first list can contain apps that do not have ads or do not have impressions at all, but nevertheless they can be useful if proactively blocked to avoid being manipulated for IVT in the future.

The second list contains apps that have been seen generating impressions and in general should be treated as IVT and be blocked.

Pixalate has developed algorithms to detect and exclude from the blocklist removed apps where Pixalate has determined that such apps should not be blocked because removal was likely unrelated to IVT. Examples of such app removals include cases where removal appears to be temporary and due to an administrative or legal issue (i.e., Pixalate believes that the app is likely to be relisted in the app store within a few days or weeks).

Both data feeds have the same schemas and semantics behind, so both should be applied the same way, as described below:

For an iOS app, the matching can be done on either the appId column (which contains the numeric trackId of the iOS app) or the bundleId column.
For an Android app, the matching needs to be done at the appId column, which contains the bundleId for an android app.

DElisted From the App StorE (DEFASE) Block List Details

Defase App List

Description: A data feed containing all the removed apps from Google Play and iTunes store.

Update Interval: Once per day (estimated availability 12:00 PM)

File Format: CSV

Naming convention in FTP folder: DefasedAppList_YYYYMMDD.csv

Defase App Blocklist

Description: A data feed containing all the apps removed from Google Play and iTunes store, which have generated impressions in the last 2 weeks and which also have shown evidence of suspicious or invalid behavior.

Update Interval: Once per day (estimated availability 12:00 PM)

File Format: CSV

Naming convention in FTP folder: DefasedAppBlocklist_YYYYMMDD.csv

Schema Details

Column Name	Type	Description
osName	STRING	The name of the Operating System (OS) that the app is installed. Currently only iOS (for Apple iTunes) and Android (for Google Play) are supported.
appID	STRING	The app identifier that uniquely characterises an app for a given operating system. This will be the (numeric) “trackId” for Apple iTunes apps, and “package name” for Google Play.
bundleId	STRING	This is the bundleId that exists for iTunes apps only.
lastSeen	STRING	This is the date the app was removed from the app store.
appStoreUrl	STRING	This is the URL that was making the app available for download. A delisted app is expected to trigger an HTTP 404 error code (not found) when the URL is accessed.
appStoreName	STRING	The friendly name of the app store that was serving the app (i.e. Google Play and Apple iTunes).

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