Google has introduced a new security feature called “Identity Check” for Pixel devices running Android 15, aimed at enhancing protection against phone theft and safeguarding sensitive information. By requiring biometric authentication for accessing key device and account settings, this feature provides an extra layer of defense, particularly when you’re away from trusted locations such as your home or workplace.
Enhancing Security with Identity Check
Google highlights the risks of stolen devices, stating, “A stolen device in the wrong hands can expose sensitive data, leaving you vulnerable to identity theft, financial fraud, and privacy breaches.” Identity Check tackles these concerns by making it significantly harder for unauthorized users to manipulate critical settings.
This innovative feature parallels Apple’s Stolen Device Protection, which was introduced to counter instances where thieves observed users’ passcodes and exploited them to access sensitive information. With biometric authentication, Google’s Identity Check ensures that high-risk actions are secure, offering a proactive defense against unauthorized access.
Key Features of Identity Check
Identity Check safeguards essential settings on Android devices, restricting unauthorized changes. Actions protected by this feature include:
Modifying your device’s PIN.
Disabling theft protection settings.
Deactivating the Find My Device feature.
Performing a factory reset.
Updating biometric authentication settings.
These measures make it more difficult for thieves to lock users out of their accounts or disable tracking features, thereby enhancing overall security.
Availability Across Android Devices
After debuting in beta during the December Pixel Drop last year, Identity Check is now fully accessible to Pixel users on Android 15. Google has announced plans to expand the feature to Samsung Galaxy devices running One UI 7 in the coming weeks, with further availability on other Android devices expected later this year.
Securing the Future of Android
The launch of Identity Check demonstrates Google’s dedication to strengthening mobile security and protecting users from emerging threats. By implementing biometric authentication, the feature minimizes the risk of identity theft, fraud, and data breaches, fostering trust and confidence in Android devices.
As smartphone theft and cyber threats become more advanced, tools like Identity Check are essential for ensuring user safety. With its planned rollout to non-Pixel devices, this feature is poised to become a critical component of Android’s security ecosystem, delivering enhanced protection and peace of mind for users worldwide.
George Mensah
George Mensah
Editor in chief for techfullpost . He is an internet entrepreneur. he launched news website in 2019. Techfullpost is Stay connected to know the latest news, tech news, entertainment, and self-improvement around the world with top stories.Experience
He loves writing and interest in gaming, gadget, tech news, apps and mobile. He has been writing since 2018 and been doing research on technology since 2013. He spend most of his life writing tech news.
Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, accusing the ChatGPT maker and two former Apple employees of stealing trade secrets to speed up its move into consumer hardware. The suit marks a sharp turn in a relationship that has grown increasingly tense.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claims OpenAI ran a coordinated effort to obtain and use Apple’s confidential information through former staff, hiring practices and supplier ties. Apple says this helped OpenAI push into the hardware business faster than it could have on its own.
OpenAI pushed back in a statement. “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” the company said. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
At stake is control over what future AI devices will look like, and whether they’ll rely on apps and operating systems the way phones do now. If OpenAI succeeds in building a device that competes for consumer attention, it could cut into iPhone sales. Analysts say OpenAI is already working on a phone or some other physical product.
The lawsuit lands just days after OpenAI beat back a legal challenge from Elon Musk’s xAI, so the company is fighting on two fronts.
Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight, said the dispute reflects how much the two companies’ interests have diverged. “Apple sees OpenAI moving from partner to potential rival, while OpenAI is trying to reduce its dependence on the iPhone and build a direct relationship with consumers,” he said. “Even if the allegations are not proven, the lawsuit could delay OpenAI’s hardware ambitions and further weaken what is already becoming an increasingly fragile partnership.”
Two former employees named
The lawsuit names Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple, and Tang Yew Tan, who served as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch before leaving. Neither responded to requests for comment.
Apple alleges Liu never returned a company laptop and later exploited an authentication bug to get into Apple’s internal network, where he downloaded dozens of confidential hardware files.
Tan, who now leads hardware at OpenAI, worked on the iPhone for most of his 24 years at Apple, according to his LinkedIn profile. Apple claims Tan spent his final months at the company emailing himself information about Apple’s suppliers and internal industry summaries, calling it a methodical effort to benefit OpenAI before he left.
Apple also alleges Tan told colleagues to bring Apple parts to job interviews at OpenAI for “show and tell” sessions. In one instance cited in the filing, an OpenAI job candidate reportedly said he “didn’t even know we could take those from the office.”
The suit names OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products, the hardware startup OpenAI acquired, as additional defendants.
Apple says it tried to raise the issue first
According to the complaint, Apple wrote to OpenAI in February to flag concerns that its confidential information was reaching the company, and asked to discuss it. Apple says it never got a response.
More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, the filing states, and Apple acknowledges that some of them naturally carry knowledge of its trade secrets. But the company argues that doesn’t give OpenAI license to use that information.
“That OpenAI now employs people who were once entrusted with Apple’s trade secrets does not entitle OpenAI to use that information to jumpstart its hardware efforts,” Apple wrote in the complaint.
The filing also claims OpenAI employees approached Apple suppliers for confidential details, and in one case got a supplier to carry out a proprietary metal-finishing technique, believing OpenAI had Apple’s permission to use it.
Legal experts weigh in
Mark Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School, said Apple’s complaint “has the potential to be a very big case.” He noted that some of what Apple describes, like OpenAI hiring hundreds of former Apple staff, isn’t illegal under California law, which generally allows employees to move freely to competitors.
“But if Apple’s claims that the employees took confidential documents with them, and that OpenAI is using those documents, are true, that is a problem for OpenAI,” Lemley said.
Camilla Hrdy, a law professor at Rutgers Law School, said the case is likely to get complicated because most past trade secret disputes involving AI have centered on software, not hardware.
“These trade secret lawsuits are frequently brought in the tech space, and we usually learn much, much more as the case develops,” Hrdy said. “OpenAI is not a defendant that can’t afford to defend itself.”
A partnership under strain
A person familiar with the matter told Reuters in May that OpenAI had been weighing legal options against Apple of its own, including notifying Apple of a possible breach of contract without necessarily filing a full lawsuit.
The two companies had been working together as recently as 2024, when Apple folded OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its Apple Intelligence system, giving Siri and other apps access to it. Under that partnership, iPhone users can get ChatGPT answers through Siri and sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly from their phone’s settings menu.
Apple rolled out a long-delayed overhaul of Siri last month, two years after first promising the upgrades and repeatedly pushing back the timeline.
OpenAI, meanwhile, has been building out its own hardware ambitions. Last year, it bought io Products, a startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, in a deal worth $6.5 billion. Ive is not named as a defendant in Apple’s lawsuit.
OpenAI has formally replied to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine, contending that the tragedy was due to what it called the teen’s “misuse” and “unauthorized use” of ChatGPT – and not from the chatbot’s design or behavior.
The legal response, first reported by NBC News, marks the company’s first detailed rebuttal since the lawsuit was filed in August in California Superior Court. The case has drawn nationwide attention because it centers on a difficult and deeply emotional question: What responsibility do AI developers have when their products are used in sensitive or dangerous ways by minors?
OpenAI Cites Terms of Use and Section 230 Protections
In its court filing, OpenAI said Raine’s death was the result of actions outside the intended scope of the platform, pointing to several violations of its terms of use. Those terms restrict access by minors without parental consent and prohibit using the system for discussions involving self-harm.
The company also invoked Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a long-standing legal shield that limits liability for online platforms when it comes to user interactions and user-generated content. OpenAI argued that the family’s claims are barred under that federal protection.
Company: ChatGPT Kept Telling Him to Get Help
According to reporting from NBC News and Bloomberg, OpenAI told the court that ChatGPT repeatedly encouraged Raine to reach out to crisis-support resources, such as helplines, mental-health professionals, and trusted adults. The company said these reminders appeared more than 100 times throughout his months-long conversations.
“A full reading of his chat history shows that his death, while devastating, was not caused by ChatGPT,” said OpenAI, insisting that the AI system didn’t encourage dangerous actions and was never designed to provide support in high-risk emotional situations.
Family Says Responsibility Lies With OpenAI’s Product Design
The Raine family, on the contrary, believes that the teenager became increasingly dependent on the chatbot, which they argue evolved from a helpful academic tool to an emotional one, actually worsening his distress.
Their lawsuit alleges that “intentional design choices” at the time of the rollout of GPT-4o, one of OpenAI’s most advanced models, made for an environment that could mislead and manipulate vulnerable users. They also say the company failed to build appropriate safeguards to protect minors.
The complaint points out that GPT-4o’s release helped fuel OpenAI’s valuation jump from $86 billion to around $300 billion. It accuses the company of putting rapid product growth ahead of safety.
OpenAI Says Excerpts from Family Lack Context
In a Tuesday blog post, OpenAI addressed the public controversy for the first time since the lawsuit gained national headlines. The company said it would defend itself “with respect for the complexity and human impact” surrounding the case, noting that some excerpts in the family’s complaint were taken from longer messages that “require more context.”
The full transcripts were filed under seal with the court by OpenAI, meaning they are not publicly available.
New Safeguards Rolled Out After Lawsuit
The day after the lawsuit was filed, OpenAI announced the introduction of parental controls on its platform-a feature many safety experts had been urging for months. Since then, the company has rolled out additional safeguards aimed at helping protect teens when conversations get emotionally sensitive.
These changes include stronger detection of crisis-related language and more consistent redirection to appropriate help resources.
A Landmark Case for the AI Industry
The lawsuit comes at a time when regulators, lawmakers, and parents are increasingly concerned about how AI interacts with young users. With more teens turning to chatbots for help with everything from academics to companionship, experts say the case could set an important legal precedent about the responsibilities of AI developers. Both sides are preparing for what could be one of the first major court battles testing AI liability, youth safety and the limits of Section 230 in the age of advanced artificial intelligence.
