How Android 17 stops network snoops and SMS blasters now - with ECH and a 2G kill switch - ZDNET

Our gifting experts are obsessively searching for holiday gifts that are unique, thoughtful and suitable for any budget. The latest Android 17 update adds broad support for Encrypted Client Hello, among other changes. Here's how they work. Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. According to Google, Android 17 offers a few new ways of keeping your connections secure and private. On Thursday, the company announced that Android 17 is the first mobile operating system to support Encrypted Client Hello (ECH), a TLS privacy feature that hides destination domain names. The release also enforces new local-network permissions and enables Certificate Transparency by default. The new Android version also enables telecoms to block their phones from often malicious 2G access points. But what is ECH, and how do these protections secure your browsing? Let’s break it down. HTTPS has long encrypted the contents of web sessions, but it doesn’t hide the website hostname you’re visiting. That information was exposed in the Server Name Indication (SNI) field of the TLS ClientHello handshake. This gave ISPs, Wi-Fi operators, corporate networks, and unauthorized snoopers a way to identify