Google has released a report outlining the ways it fought against malicious apps and developers throughout 2021. In the report, the company states that 1.2 million apps were blocked for policy violations.
“We continue to enhance our machine learning systems and review processes,” team members state in the report. The team continues and states that “We also continued in our efforts to combat malicious and spammy developers.”Google also shut down 190,000 “bad accounts” and 500,000 inactive developer accounts.
Google is adding its new Data safety section for Google Play. Developers now must give users insight into the privacy and security practices within their apps. This also provides transparency into the data the app collects. Google requires developers to complete these sections for their respective apps by July 20th.
Additionally, Google continues to partner with SDK developers to improve app safety. “Last year we introduced multiple privacy focused features, enhanced our protections against bad apps and developers, and improved SDK data safety,” the report states.
Google also confirms that Google Play Protect “continues to scan billions of installed apps each day.” This security measure helps protect users around the world from potentially harmful and otherwise malicious software.
As a result of protecting its platform and users, Google is safeguarding against developers releasing harmful apps. “As a result of new platform protections and policies, developer collaboration and education, 98% of apps migrating to Android 11 or higher have reduced their access to sensitive APIs and user data,” the report notes.
Google Pixels now utilize machine learning models to improve the detection of malware in Google Play Protect. The privacy-preserving technology runs on Google Pixel devices called “federated analytics” to discover malicious apps.
The company closes out by stating to look forward to more “exciting announcements in 2022.”
Source: Google Via: TechRadar
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