Google strengthens the security of Android 13 QPR2 and forbids screenshots to share Wi-Fi QR codes in settings.

CTOnews.com, February 5 (Xinhua)-- Google pushed an update to Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3 for eligible Pixel devices on Thursday. This version (T2B3.230109.002) addresses several Bug while optimizing performance and improving stability.

Android explorer @ Mishaal Rahman discovered yesterday that after installing Android 13 QPR2 Beta 3 on Pixel 7, Google was trying to prevent users from intercepting QR codes from Wi-Fi pages to share with others. After testing, CTOnews.com was able to reproduce the problem on Pixel 6a with the same Android beta.

After he reported the problem to the community, Google developers said the problem would not be fixed because it was "expected behavior".

He wondered, "Why do I need Google's permission to take screenshots on my own phone? why can Google refuse? why can't Google let me use my own phone the way I want? do I have to use a custom ROM to give me control of my own device? I don't understand."

Rahman also found that this FLAG_SECURE has been added to the Wi-Fi share of QPR2 Beta 1 beta. He pointed out that although there are a variety of tools / methods to manually WiFi to create QR codes and share them, this approach is relatively cumbersome and uncertain about security.

Compared with the unpleasant DRM copyright content protection, this behavior of forbidding users to take screenshots of their own Wi-Fi is undoubtedly disgusting. After all, the most common way for many users to forget their passwords is to scan the Wi-Fi shared QR code to see the saved Wi-Fi passwords, which is at least safer than plaintext passwords.

But for now, if you want to check your Wi-Fi password, you need at least another phone. I hope Google will give users more choices in the future.