PG Logo
  • Business Insider
  • Kotaku
  • Lifehacker
  • Openair Cinemas
  • Pedestrian.TV
Logo The News Of Tomorrow, Today
Subscribe
  • Reviews
    • Camera
    • Car
    • Entertainment
    • Gadgets & Smart Home
    • Gaming
    • Laptop & Tablet
    • PC & Peripheral
    • Smartphone
    • Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker
    • View All Reviews
  • Smart Home & Gadgets
  • Mobile
  • Cars
  • Online
  • Science & Health
  • Cameras
  • Computing
  • Gaming
  • Entertainment
  • Reviews
    • Camera
    • Car
    • Entertainment
    • Gadgets & Smart Home
    • Gaming
    • Laptop & Tablet
    • PC & Peripheral
    • Smartphone
    • Smartwatch and Fitness Tracker
    • View All Reviews
  • Smart Home & Gadgets
  • Mobile
  • Cars
  • Online
  • Science & Health
  • Cameras
  • Computing
  • Gaming
  • Entertainment

Want Gizmodo's email newsletter?

Follow us, subscribe and get in touch

  • Contact Gizmodo Australia
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • RSS

Recent Posts

Which Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazines Deserve More Love?
Which Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazines Deserve More Love?
The Stranger Things’ Season 4 Format Is Bad Television
Image: Netflix
The Stranger Things’ Season 4 Format Is Bad Television
Tell Me How I’m Supposed to Breathe With No Air (On Mars)
Image: The Martian
Tell Me How I’m Supposed to Breathe With No Air (On...
This Mercedes Is Officially the Most Expensive Car Ever Sold at $202 Million
This Mercedes Is Officially the Most Expensive Car Ever Sold at...
Can You Truly Own Anything in the Metaverse? A Law Professor Breaks It Down
Image: Bored Ape Yacht Club / Geoffrey Huntley
Can You Truly Own Anything in the Metaverse? A Law Professor...

Deals

Become a Vinyl Snob While This Wireless Yamaha Turntable Is $200 Off
Image: Yamaha

Become a Vinyl Snob While This Wireless Yamaha Turntable Is $200 Off

Today’s Best Australian Tech Deals
Image: Dyson
Today’s Best Australian Tech Deals
Score Huge Savings (And Save the Planet) With Ebay’s Refurbished Tech Deals
Image: ECOVACS
Score Huge Savings (And Save the Planet) With Ebay’s Refurbished Tech...
This Week’s Best eBay PC Deals, Including 45% off on a Samsung 980 Pro SSD
Image: Samsung
This Week’s Best eBay PC Deals, Including 45% off on a...
This Sennheiser Headphones Sale Will Give You the Loudest Bang for Your Buck
Image: Sennheiser
This Sennheiser Headphones Sale Will Give You the Loudest Bang for...

Sponsored Articles

Google’s Limiting Third-Party Camera Apps on Android 11 to Keep Their Mitts Off Your Location Data

Share

Alyse Stanley

Published 2 years ago: August 21, 2020 at 1:08 pm -
Filed to:android
android 11android 11 betagooglemetadataprivacyprivacy and security
Google’s Limiting Third-Party Camera Apps on Android 11 to Keep Their Mitts Off Your Location Data
Photo: Gizmodo

With Android 11, Google’s forcing all apps to use the device’s built-in camera app — as opposed to whatever third-party camera app you may have set as your default — when snapping photos or taking video in order to better protect users’ location data, a company rep told the Verge on Thursday.

The Android engineering team first mentioned the change on Monday, explaining that “we believe it’s the right trade-off to protect the privacy and security of our users” in a response to issues about Android 11’s ongoing beta. Google has since confirmed to the Verge that this change is part of Android 11’s focus on privacy and a note was added to Android 11 behaviour changes document explaining the decision:

“This is designed to ensure that the EXIF location metadata is correctly processed based on the location permissions defined within the app sending the intent.”

Put simply, just about anytime you take a photo on your device, that image gets geotagged with the GPS coordinates of where you took it. Google’s trying to ensure that the app responsible for accessing your device’s camera can’t skirt Android’s permissions system and quietly harvest your location data.

Which does happen: In 2019, researchers found that more than 1,000 Android apps were circumventing restrictions and secretly siphoning personal data from sources like Wi-Fi connections and photo metadata, even after users explicitly denied them permission to do so. The popular photo-editing app Shutterfly was among them, accused of quietly collecting GPS coordinates from user photos and relaying that information to the company’s servers. Shutterfly later denied these allegations and said that the company only gathers location data after being granted explicit permission from users, according to a CNN report at the time.

For better or worse, this update brings Android 11 more in line with the kind of walled garden you’d find on Apple’s products, though it doesn’t cut off users from third-party camera apps completely.

“This change does not affect users’ capability to install and use any camera app to capture images or videos directly. A user can set a third party camera app as the default camera app,” the Android 11 behaviour changes document reads.

So you’ll still be able to take pictures directly with apps like OpenCamera, A Better Camera, or Camera FV-5, whether you launch them by tapping the app’s icon on your home screen or use a shortcut like double-clicking your power button. And, as the Verge notes, popular apps with cameras already baked in like Snapchat and Instagram won’t be affected by this update.

Google Just Rolled Out a Slew of New Android Features

Google Just Rolled Out a Slew of New Android Features

Ahead of the upcoming official release of Android 11, Google is pushing out a few updates to all Android phones (running Android 6 and above) and it includes some helpful updates to Android Auto, a new Bedtime mode to help you sleep better, enhanced emergency services, and improved accessibility for...

Read more

The key difference is that if you’re in an Android app (again, one that doesn’t have a built-in camera already) and go to take a picture, it will take you straight to your device’s camera app rather than offering you a choice of which app to use.

It’s a small but significant workaround that begs the question: why doesn’t Google just boot these no-good apps that are stealing people’s data off its Play Store? But then I remembered that, if Google made any serious attempt to crack down on those kinds of policy infringements, it’d probably have to get rid of most of its library. And so, the bandaid approach it is!

More From Gizmodo Australia

  • Here Are 10 Tips For Pixel 6 Users
  • The First Public Android 13 Beta Is Here
  • Now You Can Check How an Android App is Using Your Information
  • iOS Vs Android: The 2015 Edition
Share this Story
Get our Newsletter Subscribe
There are no more articles to be viewed

© 2007 - 2022 Pedestrian Group

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Haven't registered? Sign up here
Lost your password? Click here to reset

Back to Login? Click here

Email newsletters will contain a brief summary of our top stories, plus details of competitions and reader events.

Back to Login? Click here

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Now you can get the top stories from Gizmodo delivered to your inbox. Enter your email below.

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.