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Google Backs Off Default Encryption on New Android Lollilop Devices

Posted by Soulskill on from the give-the-people-what-the-government-wants dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Although Google announced in September 2014 that Android 5.0 Lollipop would require full-disk encryption by default in new cell phones, Ars Technica has found otherwise in recently-released 2nd-gen Moto E and Galaxy S6. It turns out, according to the latest version of the Android Compatibility Definition document (PDF), full-disk encryption is currently only "very strongly recommended" in anticipation of mandatory encryption requirements in the future. The moral of the story is: don't be lazy — check that your full-disk encryption is actually enabled.

2 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FDE on Android doesn't work as of yet by PriyanPhoenix · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Or at the very least it would need to come with a significant enough processor jump that no one notices the drop in responsiveness from any earlier device. I briefly switched on FDE on a Nexus 5 and it only took a few days to decide the trade-off was (for me) unacceptable. Had I jumped to the Nexus 6 at the same time, however, that may not have been an issue.

    --
    "Yes, Virginia, there is a Great Cthulhu..."
  2. Android privacy guard app by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Do you remember back in Android 4.3 where Google added a feature similar to Cyanogenmod's "Privacy Guard"? That let you withhold rights to your contacts, Wifi, camera, microphone, GPS etc. from Apps selectively? Regardless of what the App demanded?

    Then later they withdrew the app, and it never appeared again, they claimed it broke applications, yet the one in Cyanogenmod and Paranoid Android distributions work fine. Yet Google withdrew their privacy feature.

    http://www.pixeldynamo.com/editorial/2013/12/14/1869/google-withdraws-android-privacy-tools/

    "It was a surprise therefore, to find that Android 4.3 contained an undocumented feature, the Android Permissions Manager, or AppOps. Pictured below, AppOps groups applications based upon the type of permissions requested (Location, Personal, Messaging), ordering them by how recently they used that feature."

    "Tapping on any app then shows all permissions granted to the application in question, allowing you to toggle them at will. iOS includes a similar feature, albeit with less granularity, listing applications under broad categories such as location, contacts, photos, and calendar access, again allowing users to see what has requested access, and, if they prefer, disable it."

    "In the second point release of Android 4.4, Google has now withdrawn AppOps, claiming it was never intended to be accessed by end users."

    -------
    Do you know you handed Google your wifi password?
    You did that when you handed your wife or brother your Wifi password, and when Google asked them to 'back up to their server', and they clicked yes, they handed that password to Google and to NSA via PRISM.

    There are some serious issue in Android, and encryption is just the latest of them.