Google has worked very hard for increasing Android’s privacy and security and it is improving time by time. Over 2.5 billion users are using Android around the world, and such a big install base means there’s a lot of unwanted interests. Google’s annual developer conference, is planning to make privacy settings easier to control on a mobile phone. According to The Information, the new update would bring a more sorted layout that can restrict the app’s abilities to access the phone’s camera, location, and other permissions.
In Android 11 apps were not allowed by default to grab your location in the background. In fact, they were blocked from requesting permission if the user already rejected it multiple times. One-time permissions were also added so that apps by default don’t get permanent access to sensitive permissions.
This comes soon after Apple has announced new privacy updates for its latest iOS 14 disturbing major digital advertisers like Facebook. After the release of Apple’s ATT(App Tracking Transparency), Android’s privacy features and Google’s position on privacy is being questioned. Like Apple, Google also wants its users to believe that it gives priority to their privacy. At the same time, Google is worried about how it would impact its advertising business.
Since Google has increased the controlling level of privacy, but that has made the settings a bit confusing for its users. Some reports suggest that in Android 12, things would be getting a bit easy to control. XDA claims that it’s the same privacy dashboard that was leaked previously, which will essentially bring the existing privacy control settings to one place in a less scattered layout for easy control.
It is also expected that inspired by iOS, Android 12 would bring indicators when the apps are using the phone’s camera or mic like how it is done for location access.
The Google I/O conference will start in just a few hours from now, in which all these privacy and security issues would be addressed.