Google's 3-level Android patch may cause confusion

Google has released another large monthly batch of security patches for Android, this time fixing 55 vulnerabilities, eight of which are rated critical.

The novelty of this release is that the fixes are split into three different "security patch levels" -- date strings that indicate to users how up-to-date their devices are. While this could make it easier for device manufacturers to integrate patches applicable to their devices, it could lead to confusion among regular users.

Since August 2015 Google has released security updates for Android according to a monthly schedule. This was intended to add some predictability to Android patches and indeed, some device makers committed to monthly security updates as well.

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