As far as the Consumentenbond is concerned, Android is not safe enough to use without a virus scanner. A trial by the Dutch Consumers’ Association shows that the standard security of Google’s mobile operating system does not provide sufficient protection against malware apps or against phishing.
The Consumentenbond looked at a total of 21 security apps developed specifically for Android. Both free and paid apps were viewed. Its operation was then compared with Google’s built-in security: Play Protect and also Safe Browsing.
Shortcomings in terms of quantity
Google has built two lines of defense into Android for users. Play Protect scans the entire app store for unsafe devices. In addition, Safe Browsing ensures that rogue websites cannot simply be visited. However, a trial by the Consumers’ Association showed that the functionality was quite inadequate.
The Consumers’ Association tested two thousand rogue apps. Of these, Google identified only 56 percent. On average, third-party security apps blocked 89 percent of malicious apps. Strikingly enough, Safe Browsing was even able to successfully block zero of the 250 websites that the Consumers’ Association tested. This means that this Google security is at most sufficient for people who only install a few apps per year. The Consumers’ Association advises people who regularly put new applications on their smartphone to take an app from a security company. We recommend the Eset app, which costs a tenner a year.
Compared to Apple
The Consumers’ Association also compared the functioning of the security of Apple’s iPhones. These devices were found to be safer, mainly due to Apple’s stricter monitoring of the App Store. An antivirus app, like the one available for Android, is not available for iOS. This is because Apple does not allow apps to access its system in this way. According to the Consumers’ Association, protection against phishing via the Internet would not be out of place: a third of the rogue sites were not successfully identified.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.