Ex-AOSP hacker here. I felt it strongly at the time too that Android didn't need anti-Malware [0] but I don't anymore. Some 5 years ago, I switched to Firefox

Ex-AOSP hacker here. I felt it strongly at the time too that Android didn't need anti-Malware [0] but I don't anymore. Some 5 years ago, I switched to Firefox Mobile out of annoyance because Chrome refused to block all those popups random websites would show with some prompting an app install. Google has since made a lot of improvements including tightening up which apps can install other apps (not a blanket permission anymore), running the Potentially Harmful Applications program, narrowing down fingerprinting (still some way to go as evident by TFA). Google is even locking the code up that runs outside of Android in crosvms [1]. I'm positive, things will improve [2] even if slowly because Android, at this point, is the most widely distributed OS and they can't move as fast anymore without hurting developers and users. Google did implement what they call AppOps (2013) which paved for tremendous amount of user control over app permissions. They removed AppOps citing that it was never meant to be used by end-users but by AOSP and app developers [3]. Fortunately, if Android is rooted, one can use AppOps [4]; but then rooting exposes one to an incredible amount. Besides, there are LittleSnitch-esque firewalls for both root and non-root devices [5]. [0] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/11/mobile-security-vendors-we-are-not-charlatans-and-scammers/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/11/mobil... [1] https://youtu.be/edqJSzsDRxk https://youtu.be/edqJSzsDRxk [2] https://android-developers.googleblog.com/search/label/Security https://android-developers.googleblog.com/search/label/Secur... [3] https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-removes-awesome-but-unintended-privacy-controls-in-android-4-4-2/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-removes-awesome-but-uni... [4] https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager https://github.com/MuntashirAkon/AppManager [5] https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/android/firewall https://awesomeopensource.com/projects/android/firewall