Between all of the credit card-related hacks at major US retailers, the news involving the NSA and the recent celebrity photo leak, security is a hot topic in mobile right now. That’s why Android users will be pleased to learn that Google is stepping up security in its mobile OS with the next major update.
Google has confirmed to The Washington Post that Android L will have data encryption turned on by default. This means that only someone that knows a device’s password will be able to access the content stored on it. That’ll result in increased privacy, but law enforcement officials warn that it could also make it more difficult for them to fight crime.
Android has offered data encryption for years now, but users must turn it on themselves, which has resulted in the feature going underused. I’m sure many folks will be pleased to learn that data will be automatically encrypted with Android L, but the bad news is that not users will get the update at different times, and some may not get it at all. That’s because Android manufacturers roll out updates at different times and sometimes don’t push them at all, depending on the device. Here’s to hoping that with this data encryption and all of the other goodies coming in Android L, device makers work hard to update as many of their products as they can.
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