There are apps on the Play Store that ask way too much information from you. And while Android apps have mostly been developed to entertain and help us with our daily lives, it makes sense they need certain access to certain features—like a camera app needing access to your camera sensor. But sometimes there are other apps that ask too much from its users. For example, what would a coloring book app need with your location and microphone? These can potentially lead to leaking your personal information that you didn’t want others to know. But it’s hard to spot which apps ask too much from its users. However, Google seems to be working on that.
Google is using “functional peers” or groups of apps that share the same features. It can compare apps and see whether one app stands out from the rest when it comes to the permissions it requires. When one app asks over double the number of permissions over the others, Google can look into it. The company is avoiding the inflexibility of traditional peer groups (tools, productivity, etc.) that are fixed by developing a machine-learning algorithm.
This algorithm automatically makes categories and groups apps not just on similar functions but also based on app metadata to make the categories more accurate. This program then reports the correlation between the various peer groups and alerts its team to any harmful signs or anomalies. It makes it easier for the company to see which apps to promote and which ones their security experts need to look at.
And while this is useful and we’re thankful Google is doing this, it’s definitely important for you to look after yourself when downloading apps. Make sure you check those permissions before downloading something.
Source: Google Developers Blog