Google expands ‘enhanced fraud protection’ to India, blocks sideloading for some Android apps

Ben Schoon | Oct 3 2024 - 10:25 am PT

In an effort to cut down on scams and fraud, Google is expanding a Play Protect feature which would block sideloading for some Android apps in India.

Google has just announced plans for a pilot program in India where Google Play Protect, a service pre-loaded on Android phones with the Play Store, will introduce “enhanced fraud protection” which includes blocking the process of sideloading certain Android apps. The feature was first introduced early this year in Singapore.

As Google explains, the feature will block sideloading for Android apps that ask for permissions that would enabling reading incoming one-time passwords or see what you are doing on your device. Play Protect scans for apps that request these permissions in real-time and blocks the app installation with a prominent warning screen.

This enhanced fraud protection will analyze and automatically block the installation of apps that may use sensitive permissions frequently abused for financial fraud. It will inspect the permissions the app declared in real-time and specifically look for permission requests that are frequently abused by fraudsters to intercept one-time passwords via SMS or notifications, as well as spy on screen content (they are RECEIVE_SMS, READ_SMS, BIND_Notifications, and Accessibility).

Sideloading as a whole is not affected by this Google Play Protect, as it only affects apps that are likely to cause trouble. Apps obtained through the Play Store or third-party app stores also won’t be affected, as Google specifies that this only affects “Internet-sideloading sources.”

Google says the pilot for this feature will begin in India “next month” and will expand to all Android devices in the country through a Play Services update “gradually.”

This feature is already active in Singapore, Brazil, and Thailand, and Google says that it has blocked “nearly 900,000 high-risk installations in Singapore alone.”