Android Privacy Dashboard hands-on: Here’s how it works

Among the numerous privacy and security features of Android 12, the privacy dashboard is likely to help users the most. It’s a new option in the Settings menu that gives you transparency about which apps are using your phone’s permissions at any given time.

It’s a long overdue feature that many people will benefit from. But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

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How does the Android privacy dashboard work?

Currently, the Android Privacy Dashboard is only available in the second Android 12 beta. If you have the right software on your Pixel smartphone, go to Settings> Privacy> Privacy Dashboard. The option is located just above the authorization manager. These two options actually work together, but we’ll get into more of that later.

In the privacy dashboard you will see a colorful pie chart and below that a list of your phone’s permissions. It should be noted that system apps are not included in the diagram by default. You need to enable them from the overflow menu in the top right corner of your screen.

The pie chart shows all the permissions your installed apps have accessed in the last 24 hours. This part is easy. When an app accesses your location, it is added to the “Location” segment in the pie chart.

Currently, the privacy dashboard only gives you details about your location, camera and microphone permissions. All others are grouped into a “different” category, which is actually not helpful at all.

To check your location, camera, or microphone permissions, select the option from the list below the pie chart. You will then see a timeline of the “Permission History” showing when each app accessed that particular permission. You can also toggle the Show System option on or off from this screen.

Let’s use location permission in this example. The permission history page shows a clear timeline of when the Google app, Google Fi, and Google Play services accessed my location in the past 24 hours (I haven’t used this phone much in the past 24 hours). If I wanted to edit the Google app’s location access, I could select the app from the timeline and change it from there. If I wanted to manage all of my phone’s location permissions, I could select the big blue Manage Permissions button below.

If an app has been using a permission for an extended period of time, it will also display that information. I used Telegram to send a two minute video message. Not long after that, Telegram popped up on my camera and microphone timeline with a “2 minute” indicator underneath. This could potentially help you discover shady apps that are using and abusing your phone’s permissions without your knowledge.

Other permissions like call logs, calendar, and phone are available in the privacy dashboard, but it lacks the useful permissions history timeline. For example, if you tap the contacts option on the privacy dashboard, you can manage your phone’s contact permission, but it won’t show which apps accessed that permission and when.

We asked Google for a comment on the privacy dashboard’s limitations and will update this article as we learn more.

New tiles for quick settings and real-time displays

And that’s not all. Two other Android 12 features are designed to give you more control over your privacy. We’ve talked about them before, but this is the first time we’ve been using them.

There are two new quick setting tiles in Android 12 Beta 2: camera access and microphone access. The tiles act as an on / off button for these permissions. If your camera permission is turned on but you want to turn it off, just tap the quick settings tile to turn it off – the same goes for microphone permission.

You can also see in real time whether an app is using your camera or microphone. A new indicator will appear in the top right corner of your screen when an app (or the system) is using your camera or microphone. For more information, tap the indicator and you will see a message like “In use by recorder” or “In use by camera”. From there, you can tap that message to quickly launch your camera or microphone permission settings.

I like where Google is going with its new privacy features. It’s no secret that Google has fallen behind certain competitors when it comes to privacy and transparency features of apps, and this seems like a good start for the Android ecosystem.