Google, Meta, and Microsoft partnering on App Defense Alliance to improve app security

Google, Microsoft, and Meta today announced they are partnering as the founding steering committee of App Defense Alliance. The purpose of App Defense Alliance is to improve app security by preventing threats from reaching their devices and improving app security and privacy quality across the ecosystem.

In addition to Google, Meta and Microsoft, the App Defense Alliance now has 17 additional General and Contributor Members. The Alliance will support industry-wide adoption of app security best practices and guidelines. The revamped App Defense Alliance is now part of the Linux Foundation family.

Core principles of App Defense Alliance:

• Protection

  • Protect users from malware and emerging threats

• Collaboration

  • Collaborate with industry partners, we protect better when we work together

• Education

  • Educate app developers around security & privacy best practices

• Transparency

  • Provide transparency to build trust and improve quality across the ecosystem

• Evolution

  • Adapt to emerging threats, technologies, and industry changes

“Trustworthiness of the app ecosystem is critical for end users and for the software industry,” said Oliver Bell, General Manager, Trust and Privacy at Microsoft. “Through this alliance, we aim to help leverage the industry standards that empower developers and end users to build and trust the huge array of solutions in the third-party application ecosystem.”

“The App Defense Alliance will help further strengthen trust and confidence in overall app safety by uniting with others in the industry that share an unwavering commitment to protect users,” said Dave Kleidermacher, VP of Engineering for Android and Made-by-Google Security & Privacy at Google. “I want to thank the other original founding members of the App Defense Alliance from when we started this back in 2019. Google will continue to partner with these mobile threat detection providers to combat threats while actively partnering with the App Defense Alliance and the community to help make apps safer for all users across ecosystems.”