Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Code discovered within the Google Private Security app suggests a brand new “Gadget data” possibility will permit customers to view their IMEI quantity from the Emergency display with out unlocking the telephone.
- This transfer contradicts Google’s earlier rejection of an identical person request, the place the corporate cited safety dangers and the delicate nature of PII as causes to maintain the IMEI hidden on locked units.
- Whereas the function might assist regulation enforcement return misplaced or stolen units with out seizing or wiping information, it raises considerations that malicious actors might misuse the simply accessible identifier.
Each single telephone, Android or in any other case, has an IMEI quantity. The IMEI quantity is a singular identifier that identifies a tool on a cell community, very like a private identification quantity. It’s usually a good suggestion to not reveal or broadcast your telephone’s IMEI quantity, simply to keep away from sharing it with malicious actors. Nevertheless, there are conditions the place simpler entry to a telephone’s IMEI quantity may need been helpful. The most recent launch of the Private Security app, v2025.11.13.831777920, consists of code that means Google might quickly permit entry to your telephone’s IMEI quantity from the lock display.
At the moment, there isn’t a solution to entry or examine the IMEI numbers of your telephone from the lock display. It’s because IMEI numbers are usually handled as Personally Identifiable Info (PII), and there’s a chance that they may very well be misused by hackers and even regulation enforcement businesses in lots of circumstances.
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Google’s Private Security app is an non-obligatory a part of the GMS and is pre-installed on loads of Android telephones. One of many key options of Private Security is that it permits your medical data and emergency contacts to be seen in your lock display, offering help if you want it most. This data will be accessed from the lock display by invoking the Pin enter display and tapping the Emergency button. Ordinarily, this opens up a dialpad display, as seen within the first screenshot under.
Code inside the new app means that Google is including a Gadget data choice to this display, which will be accessed by tapping the three-dot menu on the highest proper. This can then reveal the IMEI numbers of the telephone. We managed to activate this display, as seen within the second screenshot under:
Google may also show this textual content alongside the IMEI:
Code
If this machine is misplaced or stolen, regulation enforcement can use its IMEI quantity to assist return it to you.Again in February, a person submitted a function request to Android’s Difficulty Tracker to permit for IMEI entry from the lock display. The person’s rationale was that it might be useful to permit regulation enforcement entry to the IMEI with out granting them entry to the remainder of the info saved on the machine or needing them to wipe the telephone by means of a tough reset. This manner, regulation enforcement can nonetheless cross-check the IMEI to find out if it belongs to a stolen telephone, with out having access to or destroying the remainder of the info on the telephone.
Because the person famous:
Supporting the flexibility to examine machine data with out the necessity to unlock it might have a excessive constructive influence on the machine proprietor’s privateness and safety, in addition to the safety of units themselves. It might scale back the variety of unauthorized machine seizures underneath the disguise of “checking if they’re stolen” when the person doesn’t comply with unlock the machine for any cause, together with his/her personal privateness. It’s due to this fact in alignment with the provisions of each the First and the Fifth Modification within the U.S., in addition to provisions prohibiting illegal searches and seizures of property in different jurisdictions.
Mockingly, Google closed the function request as “Gained’t Repair (Meant Conduct).” The rationale given was that IMEI is a delicate PII, and malicious actors might report locked telephones as stolen. Whereas the 3GPP normal mandates displaying of IMEI, it doesn’t say it ought to be proven in unlocked state (sic).
As luck would have it, the Private Security app is transferring forward to point out the IMEI in a telephone’s locked state, contradicting Google’s earlier rationale.
At the moment, it doesn’t seem that the Gadget data display is non-obligatory. It’s potential that Google might make this non-obligatory, simply because it did with Well being Data and Emergency Contacts. This manner, customers can have a alternative in whether or not or not they need to reveal their IMEI on the lock display. It’s a double-edged sword, in any case. We’ll hold you up to date when the function rolls out and/or we study extra.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict options that will arrive on a service sooner or later based mostly on work-in-progress code. Nevertheless, it’s potential that such predicted options might not make it to a public launch.
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