Hacks

Tech giants  Apple  and  Google  have joined forces to develop an interoperable contract-tracing tool that will help individuals determine if they have come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19. As part of this new initiative, the companies are expected to release an API that public agencies can integrate into their apps. The next iteration will be a built-in system-level platform that uses Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons to allow for contact tracing on an opt-in basis. The APIs are expected to be available mid-May for Android and iOS, with the broader contact tracing system set to roll out "in the coming months." "Privacy, transparency, and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders," the companies said. The rare collaboration comes as governments worldwide are increasingly turning to technology such as phone tracking and facial recognition to battle...

Google has published a blog post recommending mobile app developers to encrypt data that their apps generate on the users' devices, especially when they use unprotected external storage that's prone to hijacking. Moreover, considering that there are not many reference frameworks available for the same, Google also advised using an easy-to-implement  security library  available as part of its Jetpack software suite. The open-sourced  Jetpack Security  (aka JetSec) library lets Android app developers easily read and write encrypted files by following  best security practices , including storing cryptographic keys and protecting files that may contain sensitive data, API keys, OAuth tokens. To give a bit of context, Android offers developers  two different ways  to save app data. The first one is app-specific storage, also known as internal storage, where the files are stored in a sandboxed folder meant for a specific app's use and inaccessible t...

Google has banned nearly  600 Android apps  from the Play Store for bombarding users with disruptive ads and violating its advertising guidelines. The company categorizes disruptive ads as "ads that are displayed to users in unexpected ways, including impairing or interfering with the usability of device functions," such as a full-screen ad served when attempting to make a phone call. Although Google didn't name the specific apps in question, many of the apps — which had been installed more than 4.5 billion times — primarily targeted English-speaking users and were mainly from developers based in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and India, according to  Buzzfeed  News. Highlighting that malicious developers are getting "more savvy in deploying and masking disruptive ads," the company said it has developed new counter mechanisms to detect such behavior. Trouble in Google Play Store This is not the first time adware apps have been removed from the Google Play ...

Google continues to enhance the safety of Google Play with continuous improvements, enhancements, and teams to fight against malicious apps and developers. Google Play Protect is built-in malware protection for Android, it was introduced in the year 2017, aiming to detect malicious apps in the Google Play and off of user’s devices. According to Android Security & Privacy  report  2018, Google blocks more than 3.2 billion malicious apps installation. Starting from October 2018, Google announced a new policy update to limit the apps unnecessarily accessing sensitive information such as SMS and Call Log data. Google Play Protect scans over 100B apps Google Play protects scans more than 100B apps every day and alerts the users about the security measures and the steps that need to be taken. It also notified you if you have installed new or rarely installed apps in the ecosystem when the play protects is enabled it shows the following warning when the malicious ...