📱 2022-05-02 12:00:00 – Paris/France.
Google is incredibly serious about making Android appealing to the enterprise and wider universe of business users.
At least that's the official company line – and the narrative that Google has been pushing hard since launching its Android Enterprise Recommended program in February 2018.
Android Enterprise Recommended, the company told us, would be a "global initiative led by Google that sets the bar for excellence in enterprise devices and services." It would establish "best practices and common requirements" for out-of-the-box Android devices, and ensure that any phone with the stamp of approval provided a professional and properly supported experience without all the common ecosystem asterisks. .
For sure sounds smart and sensible. The business domain in particular is closely tied to security and data protection, and the fact that employees carry devices that do not receive reliable and timely software updates – whether it is whether monthly security patches or larger versions of the operating system around them – pose an unacceptable risk to any prudent organization.
About four years after its launch, however, Google's Android Enterprise Recommended program seems to have become a mostly meaningless afterthought. There's a disconcerting disconnect between the program's front-end promise and what you find when you dig deep into its offerings and take a close look at what's really happening with the devices it's endorsed.
And for any company that relies on this seal of approval as a guide to which Android phones provide a thoroughly secure and up-to-date environment suitable for enterprise use, this disconnect could lead to some troubling and wrong decisions.
The history of Android Enterprise Recommended
I first wrote about issues with Google's Android Enterprise Recommended program almost two years ago, in July 2020. At the time, I noted that the program's "Devices" page showed in highlight some phones that were woefully outdated and in direct conflict with the security-focused promises on that same screen.
Specifically, as I observed at the time, the first phone listed on the page was the Moto Z4 made by Motorola - a device "Google validated" to meet its "highest standards", with " regular security updates guaranteed,” as the page proclaimed.
The Moto Z4, however, received the then-current Android 10 operating system update more than six months after its release, with no communication along the way. And reports at the time said it had gone months without any security patch updates and remained perpetually outdated on that front as well.
Now, the really shocking twist: View the same top-level "Devices" page today, almost two years later, and what do you see? Yes, you guessed it: the now three-year-old Moto Z4 still ranks high as the best device to receive Google's endorsement.
JR Raphael/IDG
Android's Business Google Recommended Devices page still highlights phones from 2019. (Click any image in this story to enlarge it.)
The Moto Z4, suffice it to say, has not been officially supported with updates for month That much. Heck, it was barely supported even when technically still online for ongoing active deployments. And yet, it's still the most featured device on Google's Android Enterprise Recommended website, along with other similarly outdated and no longer supported products.
And that, unfortunately, is just the tip of the iceberg.
A deeper device problem
Having a prominent intro page that doesn't look like it's been updated in years is obviously not a good sign for the status of the associated program. But that may just be an oversight. Perhaps the database itself is still fresh and full of meaningful recommendations for enterprise-ready Android phones. To the right?
Well, may be. But not exactly.
Go to the full list of Android Enterprise recommended products and you will indeed see newer devices in the collection of Approved and Approved Items. For North America specifically, phones such as the Motorola Edge (2021), Moto G Stylus (2022), and Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22 are all included, as are a number of current devices made by Google and Nokia.
I decided to dig even deeper and see how well some of these products lived up to the promise of Android Enterprise Recommended. And outside of Google-made Pixel products, the answer isn't exactly uplifting.
The Moto G Stylus, for example, still hasn't received theSept-one month Android 12 update at time of writing. Equally troubling, it's been running an outdated security patch since December 1, 2021 at present, despite the device's built-in system update screen assuring owners that "everything looks good" and that they are "using the latest software". . »
JR Raphael/IDG
Moto G Stylus system update message, as seen in late April 2022.
A phone's price shouldn't affect its ability to deliver on this program, of course, but for perspective, even Motorola's 2021 flagship Edge - which sells for $700 and launches in September last, about a month before the release of Android 12 – only started receiving the Android 12 update a few days ago, at the end of April.
Nokia's devices, meanwhile, seem to fare much better on the security patch front. I checked the Nokia G10 as an example and found that it was running the March 5, 2022 security update. Of course, it is missing the most recent April update, conflicting with its stated promise of monthly security patch deployments, but that's at least jolie close to where it should be.
But that's where the good news ends. The Nokia G10 is still running 11's Android 2020 software at this time – a version that's now nearly 20 months outdated. And as anyone who studies Android closely can tell you, OS updates absolutely matter beyond what you see on the surface. They typically contain numerous privacy and security-related improvements, as well as crucial changes to how apps are allowed to interact with devices and sensitive user data.
Neither Motorola nor Nokia has made any meaningful communication to customers about the status of their rollouts, or when progress can be expected.
And remember, the main promise of Android Enterprise Recommended is the assurance that you'll get "timely security patches and clear information about major updates" with all approved devices (although fun enough , the Android Enterprise Recommended site database actually has a built-in filter to identify products with a security update frequency of "not provided", and it currently has 227 devices with this designation). Beyond that, Nokia's G10 phone is also technically part of Google's Android One program for consumers, which has a similar fast update promise – although this program seems to be discontinued and no longer actively maintained.
JR Raphael/IDG
The page promoting the Nokia G10 on the Android Enterprise Recommended website.
After an initial acknowledgment of my request, Nokia did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this subject. Motorola, meanwhile, provided the following statement via a spokesperson:
We know that operating system and security updates are important, and we constantly evaluate our strategy and work with our partners and internal teams to ensure consumers have the latest and greatest technology. on their Motorola devices. Core features can also be updated through the Play Store, allowing us to deliver key updates more often. Users can expect continued support for software features such as new My UX experiences, new camera features, and new Ready For experiences, depending on hardware compatibility. Additionally, we know that security is important to our consumers, which is why we have increased [security maintenance release] update support from two to three years for all mid-tier and premium devices.
As for Samsung, after years of dismal software support performance, the company is actually doing a reasonably decent (though still slower than optimal) job of keeping its devices up to date and keeping customers up to date on its progress. The Galaxy S21, for example, currently has Android 12 and the April 2022 security patch.
But, somewhat troublingly, all Galaxy phone models are backed by the same Samsung Universal Privacy Policy, as Samsung confirmed to me – and that policy, among other things, states that:
- Samsung “may allow certain third parties (such as advertising partners) to collect your personal information.”
- Samsung “may have” previously sold sensitive information to undisclosed third parties – ranging from “unique personal identifiers” associated with a device to “records of products or services purchased, obtained or considered”; “other purchasing or consumption history or trends”; "Internet and other electronic network activity information, including but not limited to browsing history, search history, and information about your interaction with websites, applications, or advertisements » ; and “inferences drawn from any of the information identified above to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, psychological tendencies, predispositions, behaviors, attitudes, intelligence, abilities and aptitudes”.
- Samsung may also have "disclosed" even more personal information to "suppliers" for "business purposes" - including names, addresses, phone numbers, signatures, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, purchase, browsing histories, search histories, etc. the geolocation data and the “inferences drawn” from it all.
The list goes on from there, with an entirely separate policy surrounding a Samsung software layer that, if enabled, can collect, analyze, and even share user data associated with Samsung's Galaxy-branded calendar and browser apps.
How is all of this appropriate for corporate use – or for no one who is serious about protecting their privacy, anyway?
Android Enterprise Answers
To be fair, Google is in a bit of an awkward position here. Given the open source nature of Android and the way device makers can tweak and customize core operating system software, there's no real way for Google itself to fully control every aspect. user experience, including delivering updates to devices outside of its own Pixel line.
When I presented some of these findings to the company, a Google spokesperson made the following statement:
Android Enterprise Recommended gives businesses an easy way to find the best devices to deploy based on their needs. Partners and their devices are evaluated and approved based on a number of criteria, and we're always striving to make improvements to the program. When we become aware of discrepancies in partner reporting through Android Enterprise Recommended, we work with them to bring their devices into compliance with the Android Enterprise Recommended program.
That sounds pretty sensible, but the fact remains that these issues in the program have been around for years now – and the same device makers and even specific devices models continue to be included despite their manifest non-compliance with its parameters.
And that ultimately tells us the real root of the problem.
“The promise of this program is pretty clear,” says Avi Greengart, principal analyst at research firm Techsponential. But,…
SOURCE: Reviews News
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