Google Uses Machine Learning To Protect Android Users

By Swapnil Bhartiya

Google is adding a new service called Play Protect to all Android devices.

Google is putting its machine learning prowess to work by using it to identify and weed out malicious apps from the Google Play Store.

Google has built Play Protect into every Android device that officially supports Google Play. Play Protect is always updated and automatically takes action to keep users protected.

“With more than 50 billion apps scanned every day, our machine learning systems are always on the lookout for new risks, identifying potentially harmful apps and keeping them off your device or removing them,” wrote Edward Cunningham, Product Manager of Android Security, on a company blog.

Cunningham said that all Google Play apps go through a rigorous security analysis even before they’re published on the Play Store – and Play Protect warns you about bad apps that are downloaded from other sources, too.

Protecting your device is not the only job of Play Protect, if you lose your device or if it falls into the wrong hands, it also comes in handy. Google has baked “Find My Device” into Google Play Protect, which not only helps find lost devices, it can also remotely wipe a device if a user feels it might have been compromised.

05/23/2017