Android 12 also introduces a green indicator light in the top right corner of any screen that goes on if your smartphone’s microphone or camera are in use. Apple’s iOS 14 added a similar feature last year. In Android, though, you can pull down on the light to see more details about which app is using the mic or camera and why, and there’s easy access from there to revoke permission if you want to. 

The Android team is continuing to roll out its “permission auto-reset” program, first announced for Android 11. The idea is to reset permissions on apps you haven’t used for an extended period of time, so they don’t hold on to access they don’t need. If you want to reinstate their permissions later, you always can. In the last few weeks alone, D’Silva says that 8.5 million app permissions have reset. Android 12 is also expanding on this idea with a new feature called “App Hibernation.” In addition to removing permissions from apps you haven’t used in a long time, this extra step will fully stop apps from running in the background, remove all the temporary and optimization files an app is storing on your device, and remove the app’s ability to send notifications. If you tap on a hibernating app, it will come back to life and reestablish its presence as you use it. But the app’s permissions aren’t automatically reinstated. Hibernation is simply a way to keep apps around on your phone without letting them lurk unchecked.To allow more apps to deploy local machine learning features like Android’s Live Caption accessibility function, Now Playing music identification tool, and Smart Reply for chat, Android 12 includes in a new feature called Private Compute Core. The idea is to establish an isolated environment, or a sandbox, in which AI systems can run without direct network access and completely separated from other operating system functions. Only a set group of application programming interfaces can interact with the Private Compute Core. While separating these systems in software doesn’t guarantee perfect security, it makes it much harder for a rogue app or malware to gain remote access to local machine learning features or the personal data powering them. And D’Silva emphasizes that Private Compute Core is fully open source, so developers can vet the setup for flaws.Android has come a long way in enhancing its security features and building out privacy controls for users, including with its Android 12 innovations. But as Apple continues to crack down on ad-tracking in an iOS 14 feature, the bar is higher than ever—and in ways that increasingly complicate Google’s balance between the privacy its users deserve and the targeted advertising that drives its business.