Google’s Android 17 Turns On New Privacy Feature—But Your Browsing Isn’t Fully Hidden
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If you're an Android user, your internet browsing got a little more private.
Key facts
- Google's post limits the claim to "supported websites and apps," and the company is pushing developers to upgrade to OkHttp 5.5.0 and enable the feature
- Android 17 also turns on Certificate Transparency by default and requires apps to ask permission before scanning a local network
- Google's mobile operating system Android 17 now turns on Encrypted Client Hello, a privacy standard that hides a web request's destination from the network carrying it
- I hope to send the message that the government doesn’t own our data,” Samuel Tunick told the New York Times published Friday
Summary
Android 17 adds platform support for Encrypted Client Hello, which encrypts the domain name sent when a connection opens so the network can't read the destination. Google describes the release as the first broad Encrypted Client Hello rollout on a major mobile OS, built with its Jigsaw team and outside developers. The protection covers only sites and apps that have switched Encrypted Client Hello on; a destination that hasn't still exposes its domain to carriers, Wi-Fi operators, and network snoops. Google's mobile operating system Android 17 now turns on Encrypted Client Hello, a privacy standard that hides a web request's destination from the network carrying it.