Android Is Now Offering Routine Malware Surveillance

This security-minded move started a while ago when Google introduced its “Verify Apps” functionality, which validates apps’ safety right when you install them, either from the Play Store or elsewhere. Now the scope of that project is expanding. Verify Apps will check back in now and then, even after apps have been installed, just to see if they’re still behaving.

Verify Apps only checks for a few specific flavors of danger, like apps that are trying to root your phone, or send premium texts, or steal your data. Plain old scams like fake virus scanners that do nothing or apps that are hiding bitcoin miners don’t count as the kind of threats Google is looking for. But when it comes to the kinds of danger it is seeking out, Verify Apps is more powerful than ever; where the old version would block installation of some bad boys, the new one will sometimes go so far as to delete the for you and let you know after the fact. If that seems a little extreme, it is. But fortunately Verify Apps is still totally optional.

So if you see a seemingly random security pop-up on your Android phone that looks something like this, it’s legit.

Your Android phone is getting a little safer. The only price you pay is knowing that Google’s watching you just a liiiiittle bit closer.