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Many have heard such a thing as Google Play protection or in the original version, which is more common, Google Play Protect. It sounds nice and promising, but not everyone understands what it is. And this is exactly what protects our applications and ourselves from applications.
There is an opinion that this is only a check of applications by censors, but this is not so. Let’s look into the issue and understand what it is, so that there is no doubt about the importance of this phenomenon and how much each of us needs it.
What is Google Play Protect
In short, Google Play Protect is the collective name for Google’s online and offline security components , which keep apps on your phone safe no matter where you downloaded them from. Google Play Protect does more than scan your device for malware.
Most people who have heard of the Google Play Protect system consider it to be an excellent malware scanner for Android apps. So it is, but it includes many more features. This is a complete set of security services for your Android phone.
Play Protect uses both built-in and cloud-based services to protect your phone , starting from the weakest point – the applications. Once you install apps on your phone, even the company that created it can’t control everything that can happen, and that’s where tools like those offered by Play Protect come into play.
The best Android security in the world
Google claims that Play Protect is the most widely used threat protection service in the world. The explanation for this is quite simple – it’s part of every Android device that uses Google mobile services, and there are more than two billion of them. If your phone has access to the Play Store, it is covered by Google Play Protect. That’s all.
While Play Protect does more than just scan for malware, it does scan all apps, including those you’ve downloaded from third-party sources. And it does it every day and on every phone. Given that there are an estimated 100 billion applications in the world, the amount of work is impressive.
It also regularly checks to make sure that the protection system has the latest information to find bad applications. That is, the database is constantly updated.
What Google Play Protection does
When a potentially malicious application (Google calls them PHAs) is detected, several different things can happen. You will always be notified when the Play Protect system has detected something that it thinks is harmful for such an application.
Further, the verification systems understand how to proceed. To do this, you need to evaluate what a harmful application can do. After that, it can be disabled or completely removed from your phone. It can even be blocked so that it can no longer be installed.
When Play Protect disables an app that it believes to be malicious, you can enable it yourself, after which no further action will be taken unless the app is updated or its capabilities change in the future.
Another part of Play Protect is the Find My Device service. This feature is enabled by default on every Android phone since version 4.4. You can use an app or website to find your lost phone, ring it up, check the last connected Wi-Fi hotspot, check the battery level, block it, or even erase all information so no one can access it.
Like almost everything Google does, Play Protect starts in the cloud. This applies to applications from the company store, and to those that you downloaded from nowhere.
After an app is uploaded to Google Play, but before it is made available for download by users, Google analyzes and reviews it. Most of these analysis is done using machine learning, but sometimes human input is required.
Google Play is not the most secure thing, but with the right tools, it becomes a little less dangerous.
When Google Reviews Apps
Apps also go through internal review to ensure they comply with Google Play policies. Google verifies that developers comply with the Redistribution Agreement using an automated system. This ensures that they follow the rules for working with payment information, data collection rules and other equally important requirements.
If the automatic check finds anything suspicious during these procedures, the application is flagged for manual review by a Google security analyst. In addition, Google may analyze applications downloaded from third-party sources in the same way if you have enabled Play Protect to improve the detection of malicious applications in your phone’s security settings.
This optional setting helps Google develop new ways to detect malicious app activity. Combined with things like third party reports that have found such software, protection algorithms can keep you safe from many of the dangers you create around you.
Nothing is ever perfect and Google Play Protect sometimes fails too, but to do such work without it would not only be difficult, but rather even impossible. Such a system protects us from intruders and takes care of many mistakes and carelessness. Even if it misses something, it will still prevent many difficulties. Moreover, the system continues to learn and develop to become even better.
