New phones and tablets featuring the latest version of Google's Mobile Operating System, Android 5 "Lollipop," will not have device encryption enabled by default despite earlier promises made by Internet giant.
While all smartphones and tablets running Android "Lollipop" will support encryption, it will be up to the individual phone and tablet makers to decide how to implement the encryption.
Google has confirmed the decision to require individuals and hardware manufactures to enable the encryption, but has not given any specific reason for the change in policy. Google also confirmed that encryption by default will be reserved for "future versions" of their mobile operating system.
For now, Google's Nexus 6 smartphone and Nexus 9 tablet will have device encryption enabled by default as soon as the device is switched on. Non-Nexus device owners will have to enable the feature manually.
Google made headlines when it announced that it would enable encryption by default putting the device security in the hands of phone and tablet owners. "As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won't even have to think about turning it on," Google spokesperson Niki Christoff told The Washington Post in September.
Apple was the first device manufacturer to announce that its latest version of its mobile operating system, iOS 8, would come with device encryption by default. It is said that the announcement by both Google and Apple came in response to the Edward Snowden leaks.
However, the first devices rolling off the assembly line featuring Android "Lollipop" are shipping without this feature enabled by default and older phones that are upgraded to the new operating system do not have the feature enabled either. Ars Technica said Monday that the latest in the Samsung Galaxy line, the Galaxy S6, does not come with encryption turned on by default.
While Google has refused to comment further, it does refer users to its Android Compatibility Definition document that states that encryption should be enabled after the device is taken out of the box.
According to the document, "We expect this to change to a 'must' in the future versions of Android."
It is not clear why Google made this policy change as it released this latest version of Android. However, some believe it could be due to many of the performance issues users have experienced due to the data encryption with some users even reporting unusable devices after upgrading.
