Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
Google declares Android safer than ever, assuming you only use the Play Store
July 15, 2025
AtGoogle I/O 2018, Google announced it would release something called an Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report by the end of the year, and today it did just that. The report will come once every quarter and is meant to supplement the annualAndroid Security Year in Reviewreport.
The Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report is the latest addition to Google’sgeneral transparency reporting site, which began in 2010 to show how the policies and actions of governments and corporations affect privacy, security, and access to information online.
You can watch Dave Kleidermacher, VP of Android Security and Privacy atGoogle, reveal the Android Ecosystem Security Transparency Report in the YouTube video below:
The primary focus of this new report is to chronicle how often a routine, full-device scan byGoogle Play Protectdetects a device with potentially-harmful applications (PHAs) installed. Google Play Protect runs on all certified Android devices and scans all applications regardless of whether the user downloaded them from theGoogle Play Storeor not.
You can read the complete report — and Google’s blog entry about its release — on theGoogle Security Blog. However, the basic gist of the report is pretty simple: Android is more secure than it’s ever been for those of us who exclusively use the Google Play Store to download applications. For those of us who download apps from outside the Play Store, things aren’t as secure.
Dave Kleidermacher had this to say about the findings of the report:
Although Google is clearly trying to emphasize the security benefits of exclusively using the Play Store for your app needs, the security of devices that installed apps fromoutsideof Google Play also improved. In 2017, about 0.82 percent of devices that installed apps from outside of Google Play were affected by PHAs; in the first three quarters of 2018, about0.76 percent were affected(ED:Google retracted this information after this article was published. The correct percentage is actually 0.68 percent. Google blamed the error on a bug in its system.). That’s not a humongous drop, but still a drop.
The report also concludes that the more recent your version of Android is, the less likely you are to download PHAs.
Click the button below to check out the full report:
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
