Google Pulls Privacy Feature it Says Wasn’t Supposed to Be in Android in First Place

With the latest update to Android, Google has removed a hidden feature that had been used to allow phone owners to more tightly control which personal information could be accessed by applications.

Google isn’t commenting directly on the feature’s removal, but the company has indicated that it had inadvertently included experimental code within Android 4.3 that enabled it. Google won’t say when or if the feature might return. The move isn’t winning Google any love from privacy advocates who see yanking the feature as a step back for consumers. Google maintains that the feature could cause apps to crash since it allows for certain permissions to be revoked.