Google Pixel gets privacy mode to keep your selfies safe from prying repair techs
- Reference: 1702662009
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/12/15/google_pixel_gets_repair_mode/
- Source link:
The web giant [1]announced the addition of repair mode to select Pixel devices in a blog post this week, describing it as a simple toggleable method of "protecting privacy and making sure devices are repaired quickly and efficiently."
According to a new [2]help page on Google's Pixel Phone support site, repair mode works by creating a clean Android install in a dedicated partition with limited functionality, but without allowing access to the device owner's personal data.
[3]
Access to Google Play, Messages, Text-to-Speech, Google Search and other apps are disabled in repair mode, and other apps designed for technicians are made available only in repair mode, Google said.
[4]
[5]
"Most repair techs are trustworthy people who just want to help you get your stuff working again. But it can be nerve-racking to unlock your phone for a stranger, and repair techs shouldn't need access to your data to confirm that the speakers or cameras work," iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens [6]said of the new Pixel feature. "We're glad to see Google introducing this feature that takes the worry and hassle out of sending in a phone for repair."
Repair mode can be used for both walk-in and mail-in repairs, Google said, and changes to the device made in repair mode, outside of system updates, are undone when repair mode is turned off.
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Google says that using repair mode isn't a guarantee that a technician won't decide to wipe the entire device during the course of a repair if needed, and repair mode doesn't prevent that from happening.
"If parts that affect the storage need to be replaced during the repair service, the technician must wipe your phone's data even if you have turned repair mode on," Google states on the help page, and advises Pixel owners to still take a full backup before sending the device in for repair.
For those interested in taking a look at it, repair mode can be found in the Settings app under the System menu on compatible Pixel device – ie, those running Android 14 with the December 2023 update or newer, and with 2 GB of free space available.
[8]Google introduces phone-shaped housing for its AI tech
[9]Privacy fail: Pictures cropped, redacted by Google Pixel phones can be recovered
[10]Help, Android 14 ate my Pixel! Bug causes endless reboots, loss of storage access
[11]iFixit pries open Google Pixel 8 Pro with clamps and picks
Google isn't the first to introduce such a feature - Samsung added a [12]similar maintenance mode to Galaxy devices with the release of One UI 5 in October 2022.
Google announced a couple of other new self-repair features alongside repair mode this week, the first of which is the ability for anyone with a Pixel device to launch the Pixel Diagnostic [13]app from their phone keypad. Doing so isn't exactly intuitive, however: Users need to open the Phone app and dial *#*#7287#*#* , which fires up a USSD session, and then follow the onscreen prompts. A user manual for the app is available.
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Along with repair mode and Diagnostic app access, Google also announced a redesign of its repair manuals to make them more friendly to third-party techs and DIYers. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-phone-repair-update/
[2] https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/14266732?hl=en-GB
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZXzalsPRXf4mTLB9h6vG9QAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXzalsPRXf4mTLB9h6vG9QAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXzalsPRXf4mTLB9h6vG9QAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.ifixit.com/News/87826/googles-new-repair-mode-keeps-your-phones-data-safe-while-its-at-the-repair-shop
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZXzalsPRXf4mTLB9h6vG9QAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/04/google_pixel_ai/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/20/google_pixel_acropalypse/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/30/google_android_14_pixel_bug/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/ifixit_rips_open_the_google/
[12] https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00091542/
[13] https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/14257407)
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZXzalsPRXf4mTLB9h6vG9QAAAJg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Unless it's possible to enable this mode remotely, then it's not a lot of use if the screen is broken, and I suspect that's why most phones need repairing.
You can try telling the repair tech that, since it's only hardware, they can swap the screens without any login information, testing by seeing if the lock screen comes up correctly. I'm not sure if they'll accept that, but you can try it. Some other repairs might need them to test things that are only available when the device is running.
From repair techs?
We need a "privacy" mode to protect us from Google.
Senior Politician Mode
Is needed - where the data is automatically encrypted and backed up to the National Archives - only to be released under the 30-year rule, or, for authorised investigations such as the Covid Inquiry.
That should address the issue of the people asked for their WhatsApp messages for the Covid Inquiry, the 2 most senior ones came up with "the dog ate it" excuses
Why not just erase it?
If you have it backed up to the cloud, just erase it as a new device and hand that to them. Once they repair it you restore from the cloud and you're good to go. That's what I'd do if I ever needed to have my iPhone repaired.
The potential flaw in the above scenario is it requires your phone to be in working order to do the erasure, but the same is true for being to able to enable use of this secondary partition scheme. But I suppose in 99% of the cases it will be a broken screen or a battery replacement, rather than a completely dead device.
I can't see the UK government liking this one bit.
(I thought El Reg had a "think of the children" icon ?)