CRW

Home Wiki

Cerberus

View on consumerrights.wiki ↗

Work in progress
This article has been flagged for additional work. Treat its claims as provisional.
Verification concerns
Editors have raised concerns about the verifiability of one or more claims.
Contents4
  1. Anti-consumer practices
  2. Expiring lifetime licenses (201x)
  3. Strict ad blocker prevention (202x)
  4. References

⚠️ Article status notice: This article has been marked as incomplete

This article needs additional work for its sourcing and verifiability to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues.

This notice will be removed once sufficient documentation has been added to establish the systemic nature of these issues. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the discord and post to the #appeals channel.

Learn more ▼

This Article Requires Additional Verification

This article has been flagged due to verification concerns. While the topic might have merit, the claims presented lack citations that live up to our standards, or rely on sources that are questionable or unverifiable by our standards. Articles must meet the Moderator Guidelines and Mission statement; factual accuracy and systemic relevance are required for inclusion here!

Why This Article Is In Question

Articles in this wiki are required to:

  • Provide verifiable & credible evidence to substantiate claims.
  • Avoid relying on anecdotal, unsourced, or suspicious citations that lack legitimacy.
  • Make sure that all claims are backed by reliable documentation or reporting from reputable sources.

Examples of issues that trigger this notice:

  • A topic that heavily relies on forum posts, personal blogs, or other unverifiable sources.
  • Unsupported claims with no evidence or citations to back them up.
  • Citations to disreputable sources, like non-expert blogs or sites known for spreading misinformation.
How You Can Improve This Article

To address verification concerns:

  • Replace or supplement weak citations with credible, verifiable sources.
  • Make sure that claims are backed by reputable reporting or independent documentation.
  • Provide additional evidence to demonstrate systemic relevance and factual accuracy. For example:
    • Avoid: Claims based entirely on personal anecdotes or hearsay without supporting documentation.
    • Include: Corporate policies, internal communications, receipts, repair logs, verifiable video evidence, or credible investigative reports.

If you believe this notice has been placed in error, or once the article has been updated to address these concerns, please visit the Moderator's noticeboard, or the #appeals channel on our Discord server: Join here.


Cerberus
Basic Information
Release Year 2011
Product Type Software, Security
In Production Yes
Official Website https://www.cerberusapp.com

Cerberus Phone Antitheft[1] is an app designed to be a suite of services centered on security, developed by LSDroid.

Anti-consumer practices

Expiring lifetime licenses (201x)

The application has faced controversy over expiring licenses that were sold as being "lifetime", and are alleged to delete complaints from forum.[2] The company started by cancelling free subscriptions in 2015,[3] then in 2019 went on to cancel the paid "lifetime" subscriptions for all users.[4]

Users initially received an email[5] on 20 February 2018, notifying them of a new app that would require a subscription plan. However users were reassured that their purchased lifetime license for the anti-theft app would still continue to function.

Users then received another email on 5 February 2019, notifying them of new functionality of the app that would require a subscription plan. However users were reassured that their purchased lifetime license for the anti-theft app would still continue to function:

<currently blocked from adding supporting image>

Then without any further communication, on 20 December 2019 users were notified that their paid "lifetime" subscriptions would expire soon, and that they needed to buy a licence if they wanted to continue using the software they'd already paid for:

<currently blocked from adding supporting image>

These actions led to a backlash from paying users on forums,[6] Reddit,[7] and review sites.[8] However, no major news sources covered the backlash.

Strict ad blocker prevention (202x)

Main article: Cerberus Phone Security Login with ad blocker no longer possible

When users attempt to log into the Cerberus dashboard with an ad blocker enabled, the user is instantly logged out and a popup is shown telling the user to disable ad blocker. However, another option is to purchase an "ad removal" for ~$120 USD.

References

  1. ↑ "Cerberus: Anti-theft, Phone tracker, MDM, Personal safety". www.cerberusapp.com. Archived from the original on 22 Jan 2026.
  2. ↑ Vonau, Manuel (Dec 21, 2019). "Paid Cerberus 'lifetime' licenses are expiring, customers are mad (Update: Complaints deleted from forum)". Android Police. Archived from the original on Dec 12, 2025.
  3. ↑ Whitman, Ryan (Aug 20, 2015). "[Update: Official Statement] Many Cerberus Free 'Lifetime' Licenses Are Expiring In A Few Days Because Developers Gotta Eat". Android Police. Archived from the original on Dec 12, 2025.
  4. ↑ Padla, Rei (December 23, 2019). "Cerberus starts expiring paid lifetime licenses". Android Community. Archived from the original on July 22, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Important news on your Cerberus account". Archived from the original on Jul 8, 2025.
  6. ↑ "Android security app Cerberus gives out free lifetime licenses, revokes later". NeoGAF. Sep 14, 2015. Archived from the original on Feb 15, 2025.
  7. ↑ "CERBERUS APP - Collective complaint - lifetime license but received a message that my license is expiring". Reddit - r/androidapps. Dec 23, 2019. Archived from the original on 2026-02-23.
  8. ↑ "Cerberusapp". Trustpilot. Archived from the original on 2025-05-19.
Filed under