How to leverage existing Android privacy changes to increase user trust | by Terence Zhang | Android Developers | Mar, 2023

Study privateness finest practices that may improve the standard and recognition of your app!

As a part of Android Developer Privateness Week, we shared that greater than half of American adults have averted utilizing a digital service because of privateness considerations. Right here at Android, we imagine that privateness is user-centric. We have added many transparency-enhancing options in current releases to assist customers determine which apps are accessing their information and sensors on their units, when that entry happens, and the way the apps are utilizing that information. As such, it’s extra vital than ever that builders deal with person information with care and solely entry it when it’s wanted and anticipated by the person.

This weblog explores how one can finest make the most of these options to strengthen your privacy-first app expertise and improve person belief in your apps.

Listed here are among the main privateness releases of current variations of Android…

A timeline showing the 3 most recently released Android versions and a set of privacy features highlighted in each version

privateness indicators

In Android 12, Android launched privateness indicators, which present when apps are accessing information from the machine’s digicam and microphone. Customers can click on the indicator to simply see which apps are at the moment accessing their information.

Indicators appear as icons in the upper right corner. When the user taps the indicators, a dialog appears near the top of the screen showing which apps are accessing the device's camera and microphone.

privateness panel

Android 12 additionally noticed the launch of the privateness dashboard, a one-stop-shop that lets customers see which apps are accessing information, what permissions apps are utilizing, and when that entry happens.

Customers are responding positively — greater than 40% of customers work together with the small print of entry to purposes within the privateness panel (which later developed to be a part of the brand new Safety & Privateness Heart mentioned beneath). This constructive engagement prompted an enhancement in Android 13 to increase the dashboard timeline, which now exhibits information accesses and permission requests. of the final 7 days.

Graph showing the relative frequency of location, camera, and microphone accesses, as well as an example timeline showing when apps have made specific location access requests.

clipboard entry

Content material copied to the clipboard can comprise delicate info comparable to emails and even passwords, so Android 12 notifies customers at any time when an app reads clipboard information that originated exterior the app through ClipboardManager.getPrimaryClip() .

We went one step additional in Android 13: the system will mechanically clear customers’ clipboard after a sure time period when delicate content material is detected.

Safety and Privateness Heart

Then in Android 13 we unified safety and privateness settings into one hub, the Safety & Privateness Heart. This hub makes it simple for customers to grasp the privateness and safety standing of their units. The hub highlights potential dangerous apps, extreme permissions, and different privateness and security-related points.

An Android 13 device showing the security and privacy center screen. The top of the screen shows a summary status and the bottom of the screen provides links to different settings

With Android’s deal with exhibiting customers how their information is processed and additional defending the info that customers care about most, it is vital to take privateness significantly. It means greater than “examine a field earlier than updating your targetSDK”: adopting privateness finest practices may help differentiate your app from people who do not.

Let’s evaluate one of the best practices:

Reduce your permission requests through the use of options just like the picture picker to cut back the quantity and frequency of permission requests. This may stop your app from being blamed for entry through privateness indicators and dashboard. Do not forget that this additionally consists of third-party SDK accesses.

Image showing some of the permissionless actions available, with a link to the documentation page

2. For those who nonetheless want a sure permission, be sure you observe finest practices by offering requests in context, exhibiting extra justification the place crucial, and respecting the person’s determination by offering alternate experiences that do not require permissions.

List of steps to take when requesting an Android runtime permission, as explained in the documentation.

3. Leverage information entry auditing APIs to trace your app’s information accesses, together with third-party libraries and SDKs, and search for accesses which will appear sudden to the person. Additionally, take away or revoke permissions by means of the revokeSelfPermissionOnKill()API launched in Android 13 when they’re not wanted!

4. Keep away from privacy-sensitive workarounds like discovering put in apps utilizing media metadata. The system will spotlight your utility for this vast entry to person information.

Thanks for studying! Be at liberty to remark beneath when you have any questions or feedback. For extra content material throughout privateness week, observe our @AndroidDev account on Twitter and androiddev on LinkedIn! You may also observe our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AndroidDevelopers or subscribe to our Android Developer Weblog and Medium pages.

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How to leverage existing Android privacy changes to increase user trust | by Terence Zhang | Android Developers | Mar, 2023