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Google boosts Gmail security in Workspace with client-side encryption in beta
By applying for a beta, Google Workspace admins can now enable client-side encryption to help secure work emails even more than before.
Select Google Workspace admins with a compatible paid plan now have another extra way to secure Gmail for their end-users. That's because Google recently announced client-side encryption in beta for Gmail on the web, through a beta program that will run until January 20, 2023.
Meta isn't ready to E2E encrypt your Facebook and Instagram messages by default just yet
Meta has delayed its plans to end-to-end encrypt Facebook and Instagram messages by default till 2023, a year after its initial promise.
Meta -- the company behind Facebook and Instagram -- has shared an update regarding its end-to-end (E2E) encryption plans. The company had promised that it would E2E encrypt Facebook and Instagram messages by default during 2022. Now it has pushed this deadline till "sometime in 2023" -- a year later. Meta already E2E encrypts WhatsApp messages by default, but its other services aren't ready to follow suit just yet.
Google Chrome to default to HTTPS when typing in URLs
Google Chrome has added new commits to the Chromium project for "upgraded HTTPS navigations" which bypass the HTTP version of a page.
Google Chrome is testing a change which would see the Omnibox automatically default to the encrypted (HTTPS) version of a page, without going to the unencrypted version first. The move could shave valuable fractions of a second from page loading times and reflects the company's policy of prioritising encrypted websites in search results, brought in during 2018.
[Update: Crisis Averted] Many websites could potentially break on older Android phones in 2021
Many websites could potentially break on Android devices running versions less than 7.1.1 next year due to an expiring root certificate.
Texas detective says the data encryption of modern Android phones is superior to iPhones
A recent report from Vice suggests that data encryption of Android phones in better than that of iPhones, making it harder for govt agencies to crack them.
The US government has been trying to pressure companies like Apple to create a backdoor in its smartphones to help law enforcement agencies access encrypted data when needed. Such a backdoor could help agencies gather crucial information about a detainee, which can then be used as evidence in a court of law. However, critics have argued that giving the government easy access to smartphone data defeats the entire purpose of encrypting it in the first place. Apple, among other companies, has refused to cooperate so far. But a recent report from Vice claims that the government has been doing a decent job of cracking smartphone encryption even without their help when it comes to most iPhones. Android smartphones, however, have been getting increasingly more difficult to crack.
LineageOS Introduces "Trust" - A Centralized Interface for Security and Privacy
The developers over at LineageOS have introduced Trust: a centralized interface for security and privacy features in the ROM. Read on to know more!
The introduction of monthly security patches for Android was a welcome and much-needed move from Google. At that time, Android was infamous for its fragmentation issues, which negatively impacted how security vulnerabilities could be patched and then quickly distributed to devices. Monthly security patches provided a quick way for concerned users to judge how "secure" and "up-to-date" their device really was.
Capillary is an open source library to help developers implement end-to-end encryption for push notifications
Capillary is an open-source library that helps developers implement end-to-end encryption for push messages in their applications.
If you're a developer that implements push notifications in your app and you or your users care about data privacy, then it's important that you transmit these push messages securely. For those of you who are already into data security, then implementing strong encryption measures is a no-brainer. For others, it's a difficult feature to implement. Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) pushes messages over TLS so you can send your messages securely through Google's servers, but by doing so you aren't meeting the gold standard which is end-to-end encryption. Without end-to-end encryption, a theoretical third party could compromise the data; with it, only the end user's device can decrypt the data. Implementing E2E encryption can be difficult for new developers, so that's why Google is introducing Project Capillary. It is an open-source library that facilitates implementing E2E encryption between developers' servers and clients' devices.
TWRP has been released for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL
TWRP has been released for the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, which will finally allow users to flash custom mods, kernels, and ROMS.
Let the custom ROM flashing begin! One of the most common reasons that users come to our forums is to flash custom mods, kernels, or ROMs. Developers pour countless hours into customizing their software for the benefit of the community. But none of this work is feasible without having a means to install these modifications.
How to Change Your Android Encryption Password Without Changing Your Lock Screen Password
Here's a guide on how you can change your encryption password on Android to be different than the password you use for your lock screen.
As more and more users seek better protection for their private data across the technological space, Google has continued to introduce additional features in Android for their more privacy minded consumers.
Disk Encryption: The Good and The Slow
Learn about the adoption of full disk encryption on Android devices, where it succeeded and where it failed!
In a world where personal information is not so personal, entire bank accounts are linked to our smartphones, and surveillance and cyber-crime are at an all time high, security is one of the majority aspects of the technology sphere.