Google says Android malware installs have fallen by 50%

The company has taken some serious steps towards the elimination of harmful software installs on Android devices

No software is complete free from malware and Android is no exception when it comes to harmful elements. However, Google has been trying to make some serious efforts to cut back on the number of such harmful elements. Though the Android ecosystem isn’t entirely free from such malware, it is worth mentioning that Google claims that harmful installations dramatically fell through the year 2014 when there was a 50 percent decrease in malware installs on Android devices.

Google has further claimed that merely 1 percent of all Android devices had harmful software installed and now even this has decreased to 0.15 percent as devices have started to rely more on Google Play for the apps. It would have been much more convenient if we could figure out what exactly Google means when it says harmful software.

A 44-page publicly available document has been published by Google and it lists down the findings as part of its Android State of the Union report. The WebView vulnerability which has made quite some headlines in the near past is missing from this document and Google’s stance hasn’t changed much. But at least we can see a clear strategy from Google’s end to clean up all the platforms and services.