android

Wed
02
Jun
John Lister's picture

Google Accused of Hiding Tracking Settings

Internal Google documents suggest the company intentionally made it harder for users to stop it accessing their location data. The documents have become public through a lawsuit that claims Google broke data consent rules. The state of Arizona is ... suing over the way Google handles location tracking. Officials say that even when users switched off location tracking for specific apps, Google continued tracking in the background. It only stopped when users switched off a tracking setting for the entire Android system. That's led to the lawsuit, based on the logic that Google made profits from ... (view more)

Wed
30
Dec
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Security Update Cut-Off Puts Phones At Risk

A consumer group has warned a time limit on updates could mean phones become a security risk before they wear out. The group wants laws to make it clearer how long devices will receive support. The warning comes from Which?, a British organization ... similar to Consumer Reports in the US. It surveyed 15,000 people about how long they kept their phones. The questions covered how long people had been using their current phone, whether it was newly manufactured when they got it, and how long they had used their previous handset. The calculations only took account of handsets that were replaced ... (view more)

Wed
07
Oct
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Google Launches App Security Team

Google is creating a dedicated security team to hunt for bugs in "sensitive" Android apps. It will concentrate on the nature of the app rather than how widely its used. The new team will working in a different way to Google's existing program that ... offer bounties to independent security researchers who spot bugs in apps from the Google Play Store. To get the most "bang for its buck," that program only covers apps which have more than 100 million downloads. While it's logical enough to prioritize those apps as the number of people affected by a security breach will be highest, it doesn't take ... (view more)

Tue
15
Sep
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LG Releases T-Shaped, Twin-Screen Smartphone

LG has released a dual-screen Android cellphone with a difference. Rather than fold out like a book, one of the screens swivels round to create a T-shape. The big question now is whether the LG Wing really will prove genuinely useful and solve ... existing problems or if it's just a gimmick in search of a benefit. In its default position, the phone looks just like a normal modern smartphone with a full screen display on the front and a blank cover (except for the phone lenses) on the back, the main difference being it's much thicker than most handsets. Two Screens Can Work Together Or Alone That' ... (view more)

Fri
11
Sep
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Android 11 to Get Significant Security Boosts

Android devices will are getting some key security changes. The tweaks to the permissions system are meant to reduce the need to weigh up security against convenience. The changes will come in Android 11, which begins rolling out to handsets this ... month. Because its an open source system, the new version of the operating system will take longer to get to some brands than others, and older phones and tablets won't ever get it. The main changes are to Android's permission system, which allows users to theoretically control parts of the device's software and hardware an app can access or control ... (view more)

Tue
21
Jul
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Android Hit By New Banking Malware

A new strain of Android malware targets both social media accounts and online banking. It's a reminder of the risks of installing software from outside of the official Google Play store. The malware is dubbed BlackRock and appears to ultimately ... derive from the code used in an attack called LokiBot. Now thought to be inactive, LokiBot attempted to gain access to financial accounts through banking and related apps. One technique involved using automated scripts to login to a PayPal account and transfer money to the scammers. (Source: threatfabric.com ) BlackRock looks to take the same tactics ... (view more)

Tue
23
Jun
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Chrome for Android Gets Improvements

If you use an Android phone, there's a good chance you use the mobile edition of Chrome to access web pages. If so, that experience is about to get a little safer and easier. Google has unveiled a range of changes to Chrome for Android including ... enhances security checks, a display tweak that could extend battery life, and an easier "autofill" tool for online forms. Safety Check Tools Added The first change is the addition of Safety Check, a feature that's currently only available on desktop versions of Chrome. It makes it easy to carry out three basic checks: Making sure ... (view more)

Thu
04
Jun
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Some Android Wallpapers Could Crash Phone

Background "wallpaper" can cause Android phones to crash thanks to a bug with the system. At the moment it appears to be an unfortunate glitch but it could be open to abuse. The image in question is viewable at twitter.com , and features a scene ... with a forest in the foreground, a lake in the midground, and mountains in the background beneath a cloudy sky at sunset. The problem is that once set as the default wallpaper, the image causes the phone to crash. The phone then goes into a loop of restarting and crashing, with the only solution being a factory reset. That's not only time consuming ... (view more)

Tue
03
Mar
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Unsafe VPN Android Apps Threaten Privacy

Some of the most popular VPN apps for Android are dangerous to use, according to a leading review site. The VPN apps, which are supposed to protect privacy, actually expose users to attacks according to VPN Pro. A VPN, or virtual private network, is ... meant to be a way to boost privacy online. It works by re-routing traffic through a middle-man server to make it appear that your IP is in another location. When configured properly, the VPN effectively creates a secure online connection that means even though data is going through the Internet, it can't be read by anyone other than the sender and ... (view more)

Thu
20
Feb
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Google: OEM Mods Make Android OS Less Safe

Google says phone and tablet makers who alter Android's code to add security measures may actually be undermining security. It says device manufacturers should stick to Android's own measures. Jann Horn of Google's Project Zero security team ... specifically pointed to an alteration made by Samsung for the Galaxy A50 phone, which he says contained a bug that made the device vulnerable to attack. He says he discovered and reported the bug to Samsung in September 2018 but it wasn't patched until Samsung's security updates released this month. (Source: blogspot.com ) Ironically Horn believes the ... (view more)

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