Many have heard such a thing as Google Play protection or in the original version, which is more common, Google Play Protect. It sounds beautiful 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 understand 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.
Google is trying to protect us and our apps. She has a powerful tool for that.
What is Google Play Protect?
In short, Google Play Protect is the collective name for Google’s online and offline security components that 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 a great malware scanner for Android apps. That’s the way it is, but it includes a lot 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 with the most vulnerable place – applications. Once you install apps on your phone, even the company that created it can’t control everything that can happen, and this is where tools like the ones Play Protect offers come into the scene.
The best Android protection 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’s 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 it.
Google Play Protect avoids many problems.
While Play Protect does more than just scan for malware, it scans all apps, including those you downloaded from third-party sources. And she does it every day and on every phone. Considering that there are an estimated 100 billion applications in the world, the amount of work is impressive. It is also regularly checked 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 app (Google calls them PHA) is detected, several different things can happen. You will always be notified that the Play Protect system has detected something that it thinks is such an application. Then 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 locked so that it can no longer be installed.
When Play Protect disables an app that it thinks is 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 special website to find a lost phone, ring it, check the last connected Wi-Fi hotspot, find out the battery level, lock it or even erase all the information so that 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 the app is uploaded to Google Play, but before it becomes available for users to download, Google analyzes and validates it. Much of this analysis is done using machine learning, but sometimes human involvement is required.
Google Play isn’t the safest thing to do, but with the right tools, it becomes a little less dangerous.
When Google checks apps
Apps also undergo internal review to make sure they comply with Google Play’s policies. Google verifies that developers comply with the Distribution Agreement using an automated system. This ensures that they follow payment information rules, data collection rules, and other equally important requirements.
If automatic verification detects anything suspicious during these procedures, the app is flagged for manual verification by a Google security analyst. In addition, Google may analyze apps downloaded from third-party sources in the same way that you have allowed Play Protect to work to improve the detection of malicious apps 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 detected such software, protection algorithms can protect you from many of the dangers you create around you.
Nothing is ever perfect and Google Play Protect also sometimes fails, but to carry out such work without it would not be just difficult, but rather even impossible. Such a system protects us from intruders and forgives many mistakes and carelessness. Even if she misses something, she will still prevent many difficulties. Moreover, she continues to learn and develop to become even better.