Google continued to improve its machine learning systems and review processes, which helped it block 1.2 million privacy-violating apps from being published on the Play Store last year. The company also banned over 190,000 accounts in 2021 to combat malicious and spammy developers.
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Last year, Google also announced the new Data safety section for the Play Store, which helps developers provide users an insight into the privacy and security practices their apps follow. Apart from this, Google has made a ton of changes over the last year to provide Android users a safer experience on the Play Store.
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The company also introduced an additional set of features, like the Security hub for Google Pixel users. The Security hub on Pixel devices helps protect your phone, apps, Google Account, and passwords by giving you a central view of your device’s current configuration.
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Google also highlighted new machine learning models used on Pixel devices that improve the detection of malware in Google Play Protect. The detection runs on Pixel and uses a privacy-preserving technology called federated analytics to discover bad apps.
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Furthermore, Google also partnered with SDK developers to improve app safety, limit how data is shared, and improve lines of communication with app developers. The company notes, “Last year, we engaged with SDK developers to build a safer Android and Google Play ecosystem. As a result of this work, SDK developers have improved the safety of SDKs used by hundreds of thousands of apps impacting billions of users. This remains a huge investment area for our team, and we will continue in our efforts to make SDKs safer across the ecosystem.”
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The company introduced new platform protections and policies that reduced access to sensitive APIs and user data for 98% of apps migrating to Android 11 or higher. It has also blocked the use of Accessibility APIs in apps migrating to Android 12, killing third-party call recording apps in the process.
