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The Android 11 Privacy and Security Features You Should Know - WIRED

The Android 11 Privacy and Security Features You Should Know - WIRED

The Android 11 Privacy and Security Features You Should Know - WIRED
Sep 27, 2020 1 min, 58 secs

You're likely familiar with the process of granting apps permission to parts of your phone like the microphone and camera, but with Android 11 there's a new setting to be aware of: A one-time permission that means that an app can use your camera (or microphone, or location) for now, but will have to ask again next time it wants access.

It's perfect for apps that you don't altogether trust or that you don't use very often—it's less suitable for apps that you always use (approving Instagram's access to the camera every time you want to take a snap would quickly get tiresome).

Not very exciting from an end-user perspective, but important in the behind-the-scenes security of Android 11, scoped storage means that apps have access to their own silos of data, and aren't necessarily allowed to access silos from other apps, which in theory should keep your sensitive information more secure.

In terms of what you'll see while you're running Android 11, this shouldn't make much of a difference: Your device will automatically be safer because apps will have greater restrictions on them.

When an app first asks for permission to track location, the option to enable this all the time (even when the app isn't running) isn't available: You need to visit the app's specific page in Android Settings to do this.

The extra steps should, in theory, make us all think twice about granting background location access to an app, rather than just automatically tapping to grant permission out of habit.

Two smaller Android 11 security updates worth mentioning focus on biometrics and encryption.

Android 11 builds on an existing initiative called Project Mainline, which essentially pushes key security updates through the Play Store—this means you don't need to wait for Samsung, Sony, or whichever company made your phone to get around to rolling out a new version of Android before your handset is secure.

Major Android updates are still going to drop once a year as usual, with new features and options, but Project Mainline means Google can react faster to security threats on Android, and make sure any phone with access to its Play Store is patched up as quickly as possible.

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