Google's second annual Android security report shows how app and device scanning keep you safe

As Apple releases its transparency report, Google today releases its second Android Security Annual report. The report covers all things Android, from the security of the operating system itself, to the security of Google Play and the apps it provides access to. Of course, Google is keen to highlight everything it does to improve security for its users.

As such, the report shows how the company performs more than 400 million automatic security scans per day on devices with Google Mobile Services. Aided by machine learning, these scans help to home in on what are referred to as Potentially Harmful Applications (PHAs). Google points out that just 0.5 percent of scanned devices feature PHAs, and this dropped to 0.15 percent for devices that only installed apps from Google Play.

As well as scanning individual devices, Google also performs checks on apps -- no fewer than 6 billion apps every day. These checks are enabled Google to vastly reduce the effects of PHAs in a number of ways. There was a greater than 40 percent decrease in the number of PHAs indulging in data collection (down to 0.08 percent of installs), a 60 percent drop in spyware (down to 0.02 percent of installs), and a 50 percent reduction in the number of hostile downloaders (down to 0.01 percent of installs).

Google also points to features such as Safe Browsing in the Android version of Chrome, helping to protect users from malicious websites. The new features of Android 6.0 Marshmallow are stressed as being key to improving the security landscape for Android users, including:

Full disk encryption is now a requirement for all new Marshmallow devices with adequate hardware capabilities and is also extended to allow encryption of data on SD cards.

Updated app permissions enable you to manage the data they share with specific apps with more granularity and precision.

New verified boot ensures your phone is healthy from the bootloader all the way up to the operating system.

Android security patch level enables you to check and make sure your device has the most recent security updates.

And much more, including support for fingerprint scanners, and SELinux enhancements.

Check out the full security report for more information.