Google is launching APVI, a new program designed to identify all the security vulnerabilities discovered on Android smartphones from different manufacturers. The Mountain View firm wants to offer more transparency to users.
It is not, however, for lack of trying. Every month, Google works to make Android safer for its users. In September 2020 alone, Google fixed 52 security vulnerabilities on Android. However and despite all the efforts of the Mountain View firm, new vulnerabilities are regularly discovered. We think, for example, of this huge flaw in Bluetooth which made it possible to spy on millions of smartphones.
We still have these major security flaws spotted on the Samsung Galaxy S7, S8 and S9. It is precisely to make its system more secure on devices from other manufacturers that Google is launching the APVI for Android Partner Vulnerability Iniative on Monday, October 5 ”. With this unprecedented program, the Web giant wants to offer users a platform on which they can access a complete history of security vulnerabilities discovered on smartphones from a particular manufacturer.
Google wants more transparency
Whether Huawei, OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi or Samsung, users will be able to discover in detail the various vulnerabilities that have been detected on smartphones from third-party manufacturers. “The APVI is designed to encourage corrections and provide transparency to users on issues that we have discovered at Google and that affect devices launched by our partners,” Google wrote in its announcement post.
With APVI, Google is killing two birds with one stone. The Mountain View firm offers more transparency to users concerning the problems detected on Android, and it also offers itself a portal on which it can easily communicate on Android vulnerabilities of which it is not the source. One way for Google to remember that it is not responsible for all the security vulnerabilities present on its OS.
“The initiative covers a large number of issues that affect device code that is not provided or maintained by Google,” said the California company. Please note that the APVI will only list Android vulnerabilities that have been fixed, and not those that are still active or whose resolution is in progress.