The recent acquisition of VirusTotal may have links with this new feature on Android: Google announced that version 4.2 (Jelly Bean) brings an application verification system that is able to identify cases of malware and block them.
“Now devices with Android 4.2 and Google play installed have the option to use Google as an app checker. We will check for potentially harmful applications, no matter where you are installing them from, ”published Michael Morrissey, a member of the Android security team.
The system checks application installations from unknown sources, from those downloaded by the user himself or from an application store that are controlled by third parties. The service is enabled by default but does not send data to Google.
If the user agrees to send the logs to Google, the search engine clarifies that the process collects information from devices such as pages related to the application, device ID, version of the operating system, IP and cookies.
