Technology Desk: Google has announced several new anti-scam features to protect Android users from online fraud. With their help, this will help in preventing fraud through fake messages, dangerous links, scam calls and call forwarding. New features also include Enhanced Protection mode of Google Messages, which will alert users by identifying suspicious conversations.
According to Google, AI models like Gemini Nano will be used in these features. The company says that keeping privacy in mind, most of the processing will happen on the device itself. Help of Private AI Compute can be taken for some additional work.
Enhanced Protection mode will come in Google Messages
The new Enhanced Protection mode in Google Messages will help in identifying scam messages and conversations. This is an opt-in feature, meaning users will be able to turn it on as per their need.
This feature will understand the context of messages and conversations with the help of Gemini AI model. If a conversation shows signs of fraud, a warning may be shown to the user. After this the user will be able to choose to continue the conversation or report and block the suspicious number. Its purpose is to identify such scams which are not easily detected by normal message filters.
Alert will also be received on unknown and dangerous links
In online fraud, scammers often send such links through which they try to steal personal information of users or install malware in the phone. Google Messages already warns about many dangerous links. Now the new system will help in checking even those websites which are not already included in the list of suspicious websites.
According to Google, the system will assess new and unknown links with the help of real-time web signals. This will warn the user of danger before he clicks on the link. The company is also improving warning alerts, so that users do not accidentally open any dangerous links.
Sensitive information will remain safe during screen sharing
Scammers often ask users to share their screen. During this time, there is a risk of banking information, passwords or other personal data being exposed. Google is also introducing security measures related to hiding sensitive information in Chrome and Android WebView to reduce such risks. This will help keep personal information safe during screen sharing.
The aim of the company is to prevent fraud in those ways in which scammers try to obtain personal information of the user by looking at his screen.
Fraud through call forwarding will be banned
Google is also strengthening security measures related to call forwarding in Android. Scammers sometimes ask users to type a special MMI code on the dial pad of the phone. With this their calls can be forwarded to some other number.
Under the new features, Android will warn in such cases and take security measures to prevent apps from turning on call forwarding without the user's knowledge. This will help users understand the potential danger before dialing the code when asked by an unknown person.
Will also help in identifying fake bank calls
Scammers sometimes try to cheat people by showing the number of a bank or any official institution in the caller ID. This is called caller ID spoofing. Google is working closely with banks to stop such frauds. The proposed system will enable Android to verify calls with the bank in real-time to check whether the call is actually made by the bank or not.
Google is working on expanding partnerships with more banks to make this feature available in more countries.
Google also emphasizes on Gemini AI and privacy
Google says that the Gemini Nano model running on the device will play an important role in the new anti-scam features. If needed, additional cloud capacity can be used through Private AI Compute.
According to the company, Private AI Compute has been designed in such a way that the security of the information processed on the cloud is maintained and it is not made available to any other party including Google.
When will Android users get these features?
Google is working on improving these security features and making them available to more Android devices. The company also said it is working with Android device makers to enhance on-device security for other use cases later this year.
However, it is not necessary that all the features are available simultaneously on every Android phone. Their availability may depend on device, app, and rollout status.