Skip to main content

Android Q — Google Adds New Mobile Security and Privacy Features

Google published about Android Q, here I have summarized all new privacy and security features of the new version of Android you can quickly learn from:

1) Stop Android Apps From Tracking Your Location in the Background


Android Q gives you more control over how an app can use your device location information. Currently, you have a single option to either allow or deny an app access to your device location, doesn't matter if it is in-use or running in the background.
However, starting from Android Q, you can choose between three options, just like iOS: allowing an app to access location "all the time," "while in use," i.e., when the app is in the foreground, or "Deny."

2) New Restrictions On Apps' Access to Device Identifiers


A) Contacts Affinity — Starting from Android Q, the operating system will no longer keep the track of contacts affinity information, meaning that apps searching for user's contacts will not be able to do so.

B) Making MAC Address Randomization a Default Feature — Introduced in Android 6.0 Marshmallow, the feature will now come enabled by default with Android Q, preventing app developers, location analytics firms, stores, and others from using MAC addresses to build a history of your device activity.

3) Background Apps Can't Start A New Activity Without User Interaction


Android Q also comes with new restrictions, preventing apps from launching activities while in the background without user interaction, keeping users more in control of what's shown on their screen.
In nearly all cases, Google has now made it mandatory for apps that are in the background to create notifications in order to provide information to users instead of directly starting an activity.

4) Apps Can't Change Location and Network Settings


Android Q makes it mandatory for apps to have the ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permission to use several methods within the Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Aware, or Bluetooth APIs.

This means now third-party apps will not be able to make changes to your device Wi-Fi (enable or disable); instead apps have to prompt users to enable or disable Wi-Fi in the device settings manually.

To protect user privacy, performing manual configuration of the list of Wi-Fi networks will now be only restricted to system apps.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be fraud aware - What are phishing, smishing and vishing.

  You may have heard the terms phishing, smishing or vishing before, but what exactly do they mean? At their core, all three terms are a type of financial fraud which tricks unsuspecting victims into giving out sensitive personal information, handing over money or installing malware onto their device. The only difference between each term is the channel via which you can be targeted; phishing refers to scam emails, smishing refers to scam text or WhatsApp messages and vishing takes place over the phone. Phishing The most common phishing method encourages victims to visit a malicious website through a fake email message, which appears to be sent from a legitimate company or source (e.g. from a bank, HMRC, a delivery company or the NHS). For example, you might receive an email which appears to be from an organisation who you’re familiar with, asking you to click on a link. At this point you will be taken to a webpage on which you’re asked to submit sensitive data, such as passwords, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Cybersecurity Enables Government, Health, EduTech Cope With COVID-19

The advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact on our society has resulted in many dramatic changes to how people are traveling, interacting with each other, and collaborating at work. There are several trends taking place as a consequence of the outbreak, which has only continued to heighten the need for the tightest possible cybersecurity. Tools for Collaboration There has been a massive spike in the adoption of Tools for Collaboration as a consequence of COVID-19. Concerns about the coronavirus have caused an enormous increase in remote working, with many organizations requiring or at least encouraging their workers to stay at home—especially when cities, states, and even some entire nations are ultimately into lock down in a bid to spread the stem of the disease. Meanwhile, with millions working from home for many weeks now, there has been a spike in the video conferencing and online collaboration software, many of which are fortunately entirely free, allowing organizations...
Post a Comment
Read more

March – Threat Intelligence Bulletin

Top Attacks and Breaches Global fear of the Corona virus epidemic continues to be exploited for malicious cyber operations. Check Point Research  reports  of thousands of newly registered coronavirus related domains, which are 50% more likely malicious than other domains. CPR also informed of a Trickbot campaign using a fake health warning document to target Italian users. Colorado based space and defense parts manufacturer, Visser Precision, has fallen victim to a DoppelPaymer  ransomware  Information stolen from Visser and its customers, including Tesla, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX and Boeing, has been published online in  another  attempt to extort ransom payment. An unidentified demographic and financial information database, hosted on Google cloud, has been left  unsecured  for more than a month. Containing over 200 million records, the exposed information included name, address, email address, credit rating, income, net worth property ...
Post a Comment
Read more