“The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones,” Craig Timberg reports for The Washington Post. “”
“The move offers Android, the world’s most popular operating system for smartphones, a degree of protection that resembles what Apple on Wednesday began providing for iPhones, the leading rival to devices running Android operating systems,” Timberg reports. “Both companies have now embraced a form of encryption that will make extremely difficult for law enforcement officials to collect evidence from smartphones in most situations – even when authorities get legally binding search warrants.”
“There remain significant differences between how Apple and Google are handling encryption. Apple, which controls both the hardware and software on its devices, will be able to deliver the updated encryption on both new iPhones and iPad and also most older ones, as users update their operating systems with the latest release, iOS 8. That is likely to happen over the next several weeks, and for those with iOS 8, the encryption will be so secure that the company says it will lack the technical ability to unlock the phones or recover data for anyone,” Timberg reports. “By contrast, Google does not have the ability to deliver its updated operating system, called the ‘L-release,’ quickly to most users… The newest Android devices will likely ship with default encryption after October, but it will take many months and probably years before most Android devices have encryption by default.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: More reactive, me-too, not-really-the-same half-assery out of fragmandroid land.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
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