GoKawiilGoogle is introducing new network security protections in Android 17 to strengthen connection privacy, address cellular vulnerabilities, and protect the privacy of users’ home networks.
Android 17 adds support for Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), a new privacy standard that operates in conjunction with private DNS to hide profiling metadata, including visited domain names.
ECH acts as a privacy extension for TLS, the protocol that secures HTTPS connections, encrypting the opening part of the TLS handshake that reveals the contacted hostname via the Server Name Indication (SNI).
Even if the connection to a website or service is secure, internet service providers (ISPs) and Wi-Fi operators can still see the destination, which can be collected for commercial profiling purposes.
Android users benefit from ECH when browsing with Chrome 117 and later or Firefox 119 and later, but Android 17 incorporates the protection at the platform level.
“This new privacy standard works in tandem with private DNS to obscure the domain names you visit, hiding metadata that can be used to profile you,” reads Google’s announcement.
“By encrypting the destination website name from the very start, ECH helps ensure that, for supported websites and apps, network providers and network snoopers can no longer easily see which websites or apps you are accessing.”
ECH will be enabled by default for apps targeting Android 17, provided they use a compatible networking library, such as the latest versions of OkHttp, WebView, or HttpEngine.
ECH diagram
Source: Google
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