I’ve been tracking Google’s security evolution for years, but their latest 2025 transparency report just dropped, and the numbers are honestly staggering. If you’ve ever felt like the Play Store was a bit of a “Wild West,” you’re not entirely wrong—but Google just revealed exactly how much heavy lifting their AI is doing behind the scenes to keep your data from leaking.
Here is the breakdown of how Android’s digital shield evolved this past year and why your phone is significantly harder to hack today than it was 12 months ago.
The Great App Purge
Google didn’t just “clean up” the store; they built a fortress. By leveraging new generative AI detection tools, they caught malicious code earlier in the development lifecycle—basically stopping the “bad guys” before they even hit the ‘Submit’ button.
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1.75 Million Apps Blocked: These were flagged for everything from malware to “fleeceware” (those sneaky hidden subscriptions).
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80,000 Developer Bans: Google nuked the accounts of repeat offenders and fraud rings.
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266 Million Risky Installs Stopped: Even if a shady app tried to sideload, Google Play Protect stepped in to kill the process.
Privacy by Default (Finally)
I noticed a major shift in how Google handles your “sensitive” info. They’re no longer just asking developers to be nice; they’re forcing the issue.
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255,000 Apps Neutered: These apps were blocked from accessing data they simply didn’t need (like a calculator app asking for your contacts).
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New “Data Safety” Guardrails: Through Android Studio, developers are now being pushed to adopt “user-centric” designs that prioritize your privacy over their data collection.
The War on Review Bombing
We’ve all seen it: a great app gets trashed by bots, or a scam app buys 5-star ratings. Google’s anti-spam tech went nuclear this year.
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160 Million Fake Reviews Nuked: This includes both artificially inflated praise and “review bombing” attacks.
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The 0.5-Star Save: Google claims their tech prevented app ratings from dropping by an average of 0.5 stars during targeted attacks, protecting legitimate developers from smear campaigns.
In-Call Scam Protection
This is probably the most “human” update in the report. We’ve all heard stories of fraudsters calling people and tricking them into disabling their security settings.
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The “Mid-Call” Lock: A new feature now prevents you from disabling Play Protect while you are on an active call. * Why it matters: This specifically targets social engineering. If a scammer is on the phone trying to walk you through installing a “diagnostic tool” (malware), your phone will now effectively say “No” on your behalf.
Global Protection at Scale
What started as a pilot program in Singapore is now a global standard. Google Play Protect now guards:
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2.8 Billion Devices across 185 markets.
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It scanned and stopped 872,000 unique high-risk applications in 2025 alone.
The Bottom Line: Google is clearly betting big on AI-driven automation to police the sheer volume of the Android ecosystem. While no system is 100% foolproof, the fact that they’re blocking nearly 2 million apps a year shows just how aggressive the “bad actors” have become—and how much we rely on these invisible shields.
