Google continue to work on Play Store security: not only is Play Protect constantly active to scan billions of apps installed all over the world, but over time more and more advanced features have been introduced and systems of machine learning to block malicious apps and developers and, at the same time, they are improve the privacy protection and data security of the SDK.
In 2021, the Mountain View company says, they were 1.2 million apps identified and blocked potentially harmful, contrary to the rules set by the store. In parallel they were stopped 190,000 accounts and closed 500,000 inactive or abandoned developer accounts.
THE DEADLINE ON JULY 20
By July 20then, the developers of new or existing apps on the store will be obliged to share data on the information collected, as Apple already does with its label system which made its debut in December 2020. This is a significant novelty, which Google had announced in May last year and which now comes into effect definitively after giving the time needed for developers to adapt and make necessary changes. Always developers can now count on the new section Policy and Programs on the Google Play Console where, in one place, they can manage their app compliance issues and – eventually – file an appeal.
Other great work has been done on the SDK security: “SDK developers have improved the security of SDKs used by hundreds of thousands of apps that impact billions of users“explain Steve Kafka and Khawaja Shams of the Android Security and Privacy Team.
LIMITED ACCESS AND IMPROVED PIXELS
- 98% of apps migrated to Android 11+ have reduced access to sensitive APIs and personal data of users
- has been reduced unnecessary use of accessibility APIs in apps migrating to Android 12
- it was the collection of Advertising IDs is blocked (personal data for advertising purposes) in children’s apps
- all users have been given the opportunity to delete their Advertising ID entirely regardless of the app
- has been updated the Security hub on the Pixel to get an overview of the security of your device
- have been inserted new machine learning models on Pixels for malware detection in Google Play Protect
