Google Confirms A Powerful Security Rewind For 2 Billion Users

By Davey Winder for Forbes
Sunday, October 3, 2021

• 2.5k
• 34
• 34
• 34
• 16
• More
• 34
• 34

Last year, when Android 11 was released, Google introduced a permissions auto-reset feature that did what it said on the tin. If Android 11 detects that an app hasn't been used 'for some months', then it performs an automatic security rewind and resets those permissions to a default state of denial, revoking any access that the user had previously granted.

Ilia Kolochenko, founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of the Europol Data Protection Experts Network, called this a "game-changer for many unwitting Android users who erroneously granted excessive permissions to mobile apps that don't need them or even to malware." Kolochenko warned that "many millions" of non-technical app users are tricked into granting such permissions to adware apps, for example, or installing malicious applications whose permissions may lead to a full compromise of the device. "The problem is especially widespread in less developed countries," he said, "where mobile users use their devices for payments or other sensitive operations."

While being a great feature, the problem with this is that of the more than 3 billion Android devices out there, only the 750 million running on Android 11 could benefit from it. However, that is about to change. Read Full Article