How to Tell if Your Phone Has Been Hacked
Google Play Store Could Soon Remind You To Open That App You Just Downloaded (APK Teardown)
Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
The Google Play Store is one of the fundamental experience pillars of Android. Even though you can install apps without it, most users exclusively rely on the Play Store for all their app download needs. But thanks to the multitasking prowess of Android, many of us find ourselves in situations where we download and install an app but forget about actually initializing it and running it. Google is working on a feature for these situations, where the Play Store will remind you to open the app that you just downloaded but never opened.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Google Play Store v41.2.21 references a new "Open app reminder" feature. In the future, when you download an app but forget to open it within 24 hours, the Google Play Store will send you a reminder notification that your app has been installed and is ready to run.
If the user dismisses the notification and still doesn't open the app, the Play Store will remind the user again in some time. However, after two reminders, there will be no further reminders about this installed app based on the code we've seen within the app. The reminder feature will continue to send reminders about other newly installed apps up to the maximum limit of two reminders per app.
This feature will be handy for people who like to queue up app downloads and have chosen to install apps over Wi-Fi. The phone usually downloads the apps, but the user may not immediately realize this. There are also people like me who install apps and then switch to different activities, forgetting about the installed app (and the reason for installing that app) entirely. A reminder would serve well in such situations.
The reminder feature is not currently live in the Google Play Store. Google is currently testing it within the app, so it could roll out soon.
Update, June 3, 2024, at 11.30 PM ET: Some users have spotted the feature on their device, indicating that Google is rolling it out to some users. We're expecting a wider rollout soon.
Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at news@androidauthority.Com. You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice. CommentsWhy You Should Delete These 100 Dangerous Google Play Store Apps
New warning as more than 2 billion app installs are flagged as high risk
AFP via Getty ImagesDespite Google's best efforts, including seemingly game-changing plans for Android 15, it seems the warnings just won't go away. Less than a fortnight after an alarming report into the state of Play Store malware hit the headlines, here we are again. It's not just malware this time, it's broader. And with more than 2 billion installs across 100 popular apps, users need to start checking and deleting.
Let's keep this stupidly simple. Do not use a free VPN—not now, not ever. For the few people not yet familiar with virtual private networks whose popularity continues to surge, these apps shield your IP address and browsing activity from your network, ISP or anyone who might be listening in. The apps securely tunnel from your device to a third-party server, and then out to the open internet from there.
ForbesGoogle Will Track Your Location For The Next 180 Days-Then It StopsBy Zak DoffmanIn a world of protests and threats to dissidents, lawyers, campaigners and journalists, to say nothing of territories that have clamped down on certain apps and platforms, VPNs are a lifeline. While places like China and Iran block apps at will, VPNs are the reason users in those countries can still get through.
For a VPN to function effectively it needs a network of servers around the world, enabling users to either connect to one that's local or one that can present a location mask, trading a real IP address for one in a different country. Live in the UK and connect to a US server, for example, and you can appear to the open internet to be 3,000 miles from home. It doesn't always work when using apps on your phone, as anyone trying to subvert geographic broadcast restrictions might discover. There are other ways for an app on a device to check your location. There are ways around such blocks, but not for sharing.
Legitimate VPNs charge a fee or come bundled with other paid security products. And yet most VPNs remain free. And this is one of the great app ironies. The economic business model for a free app is to harvest your location, device and other data or to serve you ads. If you're lucky. If you're unlucky, the business model is to infect your phone with malware and steal login credentials or private information.
The new warning to the millions upon millions of Android users falsely believing they have secured their phones comes from Top10VPN, which has just tested the "100 most popular free Android VPN apps in the Google Play Store... With 2.5 billon worldwide installs between them," its aim, it says is "to help you avoid using potentially unsafe free VPNs that compromise your privacy and security."
Spoiler alert—pretty much every one of those VPNs is a privacy or security disaster, or both.
Just some of the issues the report sets out include:
The sheer scale of the growth in VPN usage makes these flaws critical; as Top10VPN comments "the 100 most popular free Android VPNs had around 260 million total installs in 2018. Today, that number exceeds 2.5 billion." A Forbes report suggests there are now 1.6 billion VPN users across the world. And so it's little surprise that Google has singled out these apps for special treatment by way of an accreditation that should assure users of an app's legitimacy.
Here's the assured list—do not stray beyond it.
ForbesMicrosoft Issues New Warning For 70% Of All Windows UsersBy Zak DoffmanTop10VPN conducted its own testing by installing each VPN "onto very basic, entry-level Samsung smartphones that had been stripped of all but the most basic stock apps," before conducting its tests.
"The results were alarming," the report warns. "Significant numbers of these VPN apps put our privacy and security at risk due to serious encryption failures and data leaks... While it's little surprise then that most free VPN providers rely on advertising or monetizing their user data to cover costs and hopefully turn a profit, it's fundamentally at odds with the whole purpose of a VPN."
Not a good look for Play Store. Simon Migliano, Head of Research at Top10VPN, told me that "Google does not have a great track record of maintaining a high standard of VPN apps in its Play Store. I first started investigating free Android VPNs in 2018 and if anything, the standard of apps has deteriorated even since then. It's pretty telling that 93% of free Android VPNs on the Play Store had misleading Data Safety labels when Google could quite easily enforce its own rules and better protect consumers."
I have approached Google for any comments on the report, which makes bewildering reading given the state of this software masquerading in Play Store's security aisle. But the detail is less important than the takeaways. Don't use free VPNs, stick to the accredited list and ideally use a well-known, reputable brand. There are cheaper or even near-free options, but the trade-offs seriously hobble the functionality.
If you don't want to pay any kind of fee, don't bother with a VPN.
Unfortunately, it really is that simple.
Google Play Cracks Down On AI Apps After Circulation Of Apps For Making Deepfake Nudes
Google on Thursday is issuing new guidance for developers building AI apps distributed through Google Play, in hopes of cutting down on inappropriate and otherwise prohibited content. The company says apps offering AI features will have to prevent the generation of restricted content — which includes sexual content, violence and more — and will need to offer a way for users to flag offensive content they find. In addition, Google says developers need to "rigorously test" their AI tools and models, to ensure they respect user safety and privacy.
It's also cracking down on apps where the marketing materials promote inappropriate use cases, like apps that undress people or create nonconsensual nude images. If ad copy says the app is capable of doing this sort of thing, it may be banned from Google Play, whether or not the app is actually capable of doing it.
The guidelines follow a growing scourge of AI undressing apps that have been marketing themselves across social media in recent months. An April report by 404 Media, for example, found that Instagram was hosting ads for apps that claimed to use AI to generate deepfake nudes. One app marketed itself using a picture of Kim Kardashian and the slogan, "Undress any girl for free." Apple and Google pulled the apps from their respective app stores, but the problem is still widespread.
Schools across the U.S. Are reporting problems with students passing around AI deepfake nudes of other students (and sometimes teachers) for bullying and harassment, alongside other sorts of inappropriate AI content. Last month, a racist AI deepfake of a school principal led to an arrest in Baltimore. Worse still, the problem is even affecting students in middle schools, in some cases.
Google says that its policies will help to keep out apps from Google Play that feature AI-generated content that can be inappropriate or harmful to users. It points to its existing AI-Generated Content Policy as a place to check its requirements for app approval on Google Play. The company says that AI apps cannot allow the generation of any restricted content and must also give users a way to flag offensive and inappropriate content, as well as monitor and prioritize that feedback. The latter is particularly important in apps where users' interactions "shape the content and experience," Google says, like apps where popular models get ranked higher or more prominently, perhaps.
Developers also can't advertise that their app breaks any of Google Play's rules, per Google's App Promotion requirements. If it advertises an inappropriate use case, the app could be booted off the app store.
In addition, developers are responsible for safeguarding their apps against prompts that could manipulate their AI features to create harmful and offensive content. Google says developers can use its closed testing feature to share early versions of their apps with users to get feedback. The company strongly suggests that developers not only test before launching but document those tests, too, as Google could ask to review it in the future.
The company is also publishing other resources and best practices, like its People + AI Guidebook, which aims to support developers building AI apps.
Comments
Post a Comment