Privacy and security in the Google Play Store are becoming more and more important priorities for Google. Recently, the company announced that it is effectively ending third-party call recording apps and also launching a “data security” section that requires developers to provide more information about the user data they collect and the purpose behind it. Now it has published some statistics about Play Store security for 2021.
Google stressed that it banned 190,000 malicious and spammy developer accounts in 2021 alone. That number was 119,000 in 2020. He also stated that 1.2 million apps that violated Google Play policies were removed, meaning billions of potentially harmful downloads were blocked. More than 500,000 inactive and abandoned developer accounts were also shut down.
Google also summarized its recent efforts to make the Play Store a safer place for consumers. He referred to the launch of the data security section, a centralized application policy management interface for developers, and efforts to make SDKs more secure for the billions of consumers who use applications built using these SDKs.
The firm stated that 98% of apps ported to Android 11 have reduced their access to sensitive APIs. Among them is the Accessibility API, which is now only allowed for intended use cases instead of call recording.
Google says: “We’re also committed to making Android a great place for families. Last year, we prohibited the collection of AAIDs and other device identifiers from all users in apps that are only aimed at children, and gave all users the ability to completely delete their Advertising ID, regardless of the app.”
Finally, there is a Security center on the Pixel side that gives you a holistic view and recommendations about your device’s security status. Google’s smartphone hardware also uses newer machine learning models that leverage unified analytics to detect malicious apps.
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