Android and Google Play comprise a vibrant ecosystem with billions of customers across the globe and tens of millions of useful apps. Conserving this ecosystem protected for customers and builders stays our high precedence. Nonetheless, like all flourishing ecosystem, it additionally attracts its share of dangerous actors. That’s why yearly, we proceed to put money into extra methods to guard our neighborhood and combat dangerous actors, so customers can belief the apps they obtain from Google Play and builders can construct thriving companies.
Final 12 months, these investments included AI-powered risk detection, stronger privateness insurance policies, supercharged developer instruments, new industry-wide alliances, and extra. In consequence, we prevented 2.36 million policy-violating apps from being revealed on Google Play and banned greater than 158,000 dangerous developer accounts that tried to publish dangerous apps.
However that was simply the beginning. For extra, check out our latest highlights from 2024:
Google’s superior AI: serving to make Google Play a safer place
To maintain out dangerous actors, we now have all the time used a mix of human safety specialists and the newest threat-detection expertise. In 2024, we used Google’s superior AI to enhance our programs’ capability to proactively establish malware, enabling us to detect and block dangerous apps extra successfully. It additionally helps us streamline overview processes for builders with a confirmed monitor document of coverage compliance. At present, over 92% of our human opinions for dangerous apps are AI-assisted, permitting us to take faster and extra correct motion to assist forestall dangerous apps from turning into out there on Google Play.
That’s enabled us to cease extra dangerous apps than ever from reaching customers by the Play Retailer, defending customers from dangerous or malicious apps earlier than they’ll trigger any harm.
Working with builders to boost safety and privateness on Google Play
To guard person privateness, we’re working with builders to cut back pointless entry to delicate knowledge. In 2024, we prevented 1.3 million apps from getting extreme or pointless entry to delicate person knowledge. We additionally required apps to be extra clear about how they deal with person info by launching new developer necessities and a brand new “Knowledge deletion” choice for apps that assist person accounts and knowledge assortment. This helps customers handle their app knowledge and perceive the app’s deletion practices, making it simpler for Play customers to delete knowledge collected from third-party apps.
We additionally labored to make sure that apps use the strongest and latest privateness and safety capabilities Android has to supply. Each new model of Android introduces new safety and privateness options, and we encourage builders to embrace these developments as quickly as attainable. On account of partnering intently with builders, over 91% of app installs on the Google Play Retailer now use the newest protections of Android 13 or newer.
Safeguarding apps from scams and fraud is an ongoing battle for builders. The Play Integrity API permits builders to examine if their apps have been tampered with or are operating in doubtlessly compromised environments, serving to them to forestall abuse like fraud, bots, dishonest, and knowledge theft. Play Integrity API and Play’s automated safety helps builders make sure that customers are utilizing the official Play model of their app with the newest safety updates. Apps utilizing Play integrity options are seeing 80% decrease utilization from unverified and untrusted sources on common.
We’re additionally always working to enhance the security of apps on Play at scale, equivalent to with the Google Play SDK Index. This software affords insights and knowledge to assist builders make extra knowledgeable choices in regards to the security of an SDK. Final 12 months, along with including 80 SDKs to the index, we additionally labored intently with SDK and app builders to deal with potential SDK safety and privateness points, serving to to construct safer and safer apps for Google Play.
Google Play’s multi-layered protections towards dangerous apps
To create a trusted expertise for everybody on Google Play, we use our SAFE ideas as a information, incorporating multi-layered protections which can be all the time evolving to assist maintain Google Play protected. These protections begin with the builders themselves, who play a vital position in constructing safe apps. We offer builders with best-in-class instruments, greatest practices, and on-demand coaching assets for constructing protected, high-quality apps. Each app undergoes rigorous overview and testing, with solely authorised apps allowed to look within the Play Retailer. Earlier than a person downloads an app from Play, customers can discover its person opinions, rankings, and Knowledge security part on Google Play to assist them make an knowledgeable choice. And as soon as put in, Google Play Defend, Android’s built-in safety safety, helps to protect their Android gadget by constantly scanning for malicious app conduct.
Enhancing Google Play Defend to assist maintain customers protected on Android
Whereas the Play Retailer affords best-in-class safety, we all know it’s not the one place customers obtain Android apps – so it’s necessary that we additionally defend Android customers from extra generalized cell threats. To do that in an open ecosystem, we’ve invested in subtle, real-time defenses that defend towards scams, malware, and abusive apps. These clever safety measures assist to maintain customers, person knowledge, and gadgets protected, even when apps are put in from varied sources with various ranges of safety.
Google Play Defend mechanically scans each app on Android gadgets with Google Play Companies, irrespective of the obtain supply. This built-in safety, enabled by default, gives essential safety towards malware and undesirable software program. Google Play Defend scans greater than 200 billion apps every day and performs real-time scanning on the code-level on novel apps to fight rising and hidden threats, like polymorphic malware. In 2024, Google Play Defend’s real-time scanning recognized greater than 13 million new malicious apps from exterior Google Play1.
Google Play Defend is all the time evolving to fight new threats and defend customers from dangerous apps that may result in scams and fraud. Listed here are among the new enhancements that are actually out there globally on Android gadgets with Google Play Companies:
- Reminder notifications in Chrome on Android to re-enable Google Play Defend: In accordance with our analysis, greater than 95 % of app installations from main malware households that exploit delicate permissions extremely correlated to monetary fraud got here from Web-sideloading sources like net browsers, messaging apps, or file managers. To assist customers keep protected when shopping the net, Chrome will now show a reminder notification to re-enable Google Play Defend if it has been turned off.
- Further safety towards social engineering assaults: Scammers might manipulate customers into disabling Play Defend throughout calls to obtain malicious Web-sideloaded apps. To forestall this, the Play Defend app scanning toggle is now briefly disabled throughout telephone or video calls. This safeguard is enabled by default throughout conventional telephone calls in addition to throughout voice and video calls in standard third-party apps.
- Robotically revoking app permissions for doubtlessly harmful apps: Since Android 11, we’ve taken a proactive strategy to knowledge privateness by mechanically resetting permissions for apps that customers have not used shortly. This ensures apps can solely entry the information they really want, and customers can all the time grant permissions again if crucial. To additional improve safety, Play Defend now mechanically revokes permissions for doubtlessly dangerous apps, limiting their entry to delicate knowledge like storage, pictures, and digital camera. Customers can restore app permissions at any time, with a affirmation step for added safety.
Google Play Defend’s enhanced fraud safety pilot analyzes and mechanically blocks the set up of apps that will use delicate permissions incessantly abused for monetary fraud when the person makes an attempt to put in the app from an Web-sideloading supply (net browsers, messaging apps, or file managers).
Constructing on the success of our preliminary pilot in partnership with the Cyber Safety Company of Singapore (CSA), further enhanced fraud safety pilots are actually energetic in 9 areas – Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In 2024, Google Play Defend’s enhanced fraud safety pilots have shielded 10 million gadgets from over 36 million dangerous set up makes an attempt, encompassing over 200,000 distinctive apps.
By piloting these new protections, we are able to proactively fight rising threats and refine our options to thwart scammers and their more and more subtle fraud makes an attempt. We look ahead to persevering with to associate with governments, ecosystem companions, and different stakeholders to enhance person protections.
App badging to assist customers discover apps they’ll belief at a look on Google Play
In 2024, we launched a brand new badge for presidency builders to assist customers world wide establish official authorities apps. Authorities apps are sometimes targets of impersonation because of the extremely delicate nature of the information customers present, giving dangerous actors the power to steal identities and commit monetary fraud. Badging verified authorities apps is a vital step in serving to join folks with protected, high-quality, helpful, and related experiences. We associate intently with international governments and are already exploring methods to construct on this work.
We additionally just lately launched a new badge to assist Google Play customers uncover VPN apps that take additional steps to display their sturdy dedication to safety. We enable builders who adhere to Play security and safety pointers and have handed a further impartial Cellular Utility Safety Evaluation (MASA) to show a devoted badge within the Play Retailer to spotlight their elevated dedication to security.
Collaborating to advance app safety requirements
Along with our partnerships with governments, builders, and different stakeholders, we additionally labored with our {industry} friends to guard your complete app ecosystem for everybody. The App Protection Alliance, in partnership with fellow steering committee members Microsoft and Meta, just lately launched the ADA Utility Safety Evaluation (ASA) v1.0, a brand new customary to assist builders construct safer cell, net, and cloud purposes. This customary gives clear steering on defending delicate knowledge, defending towards cyberattacks, and in the end, strengthening person belief. This marks a major step ahead in establishing industry-wide safety greatest practices for utility growth.
All builders are inspired to overview and adjust to the brand new cell safety customary. You’ll see this customary in motion for all provider apps pre-installed on future Pixel telephone fashions.
Trying forward
This 12 months, we’ll proceed to guard the Android and Google Play ecosystem, constructing on these instruments and assets in response to person and developer suggestions and the altering panorama. As all the time, we’ll maintain empowering builders to construct safer apps extra simply, streamline their coverage expertise, and defend their companies and customers from dangerous actors.
1 Based mostly on Google Play Defend 2024 inside knowledge.
