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.

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