'Lockdown Mode' comes to Android. Would you turn it on?
Google says that Android 16 is slated to feature an **optional high security mode**. Cool.
**Advanced Protection** has a bunch of requested features that address the kinds of threats we worry about.
It's the kind of *'t****urn this one thing on if you face elevated risk'* that we've been asking for from Google.**
And likely reflects some learning after Google watched [Apple](https://x.com/Apple) 's Lockdown Mode play out. I see a lot of value in this..
*Here are some features I'm excited to see play out:*
The** Intrusion Logging **feature is interesting & is going to impose substantial cost on attackers trying to hide evidence of exploitation. Logs get e2ee encrypted into the cloud. This one is spicy.
The **Offline Lock, Inactivity Reboot & USB protection** will frustrate non-consensual attempts to physically grab device data.
**Memory Tagging Extension** is going to make a lot of attack & exploitation categories harder.
**2G Network Protection **& disabling **Auto-connect to insecure networks** are going to address categories of threat from things like IMSI catchers & hostile WiFi.
*I'm curious about some other features such as:*
**Spam & Scam detection**: Google messages feature that suggests message content awareness and some kind of scanning.
**Scam detection for Phone by Google** is interesting & coming later. The way it is described suggests phone conversation awareness. This also addresses a different category of threat than the stuff above. I can see it addressing a whole category of bad things that regular users (& high risk ones too!) face. Will be curious how privacy is addressed or if this done purely locally. *Getting messy: Friction points?* I see Google thinking these through, but I'm going to add a potential concern: what will users do when they encounter friction? Will they turn this off & forget to re-enable? We've seen users turn off iOS Lockdown Mode when they run into friction for specific websites or, say, legacy WiFi. They then forget to turn it back on. And stay vulnerable.
**Bottom line: users disabling Apple's Lockdown Mode for a temporary thing & leaving it off because they forget to turn it on happens a lot.** This is a serious % of users in my experience...
And should be factored into design decisions for similar modes. I feel like a good balance is a 'snooze button' or equivalent so that users can disable all/some features for a brief few minute period to do something they need to do, and then auto re-enable.
*Winding up:*
I'm excited to see how [Android](https://x.com/hashtag/Android?src=hashtag_click) Advanced Protection plays with high risk users' experiences. I'm also super curious whether the spam/scam detection features may also be helpful to more vulnerable users (think: aging seniors)...
*Niche but important:*
Some users, esp. those that migrated to security & privacy-focused Android distros because of because of the absence of such a feature are clear candidates for it... But they may also voice privacy concerns around some of the screening features. Clear communication from the Google Security / Android team will be key here.
