Dave Kleidermacher is a vice president of engineering at Google, leading engineering for Android security and privacy. His scope encompasses Android and the Made-by-Google world — Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, and the Play Store.

We talked about Android's answer to scams: smarter defenses that use AI as a shield (on-device detection that catches scams as they unfold), and a deeper structural pivot to "Actor Trust" — establishing provable, cryptographic confidence in who or what a source is rather than forever trying to detect bad things.

Dave has been steeped in these topics for a long time so we get into a bunch of great territory, and I think you’ll really enjoy the conversation.

Key Highlights:

• Consumer platforms must pivot from traditional vulnerability exploitation defenses to fighting scams and fraud, which make up 99% of actual practical threats facing users today.
• The future of mobile authentication lies in reversing security asymmetry through "actor trust" cryptographically verifying the source device rather than relying on human intuition.
• Big Tech players like Apple and Google need to publish a transparent, accountability driven joint priority roadmap to accelerate cross-platform security for critical defenses like caller verification.
• Mobile network operators remain a critical structural weak point in consumer safety due to privacy-invasive habits like silent third party app installations and outdated location-tracking protocols.

Chapter Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Background

3:01 The Shift from Vulnerability Threats to Scam Prevention ‎

6:01 Real-time Voice Spoofing Capabilities and Demonstrations ‎

8:19 Platform Defense Strategies and the Whack-a-Mole Problem ‎

11:00 Actor Trust and Cryptographic Verification Approach ‎

15:37 Google's Security Key Success and Developer Ecosystem Verification ‎

17:35 RCS Standards and Industry Collaboration Challenges ‎

27:19 Business Caller Verification and Stir Shaken Limitations ‎

31:59 Privacy-Security Balance and Binary Transparency ‎

41:30 Consumer Role and Stakeholder Responsibilities ‎

43:27 Future AI Landscape and Industry Recommendations ‎

49:47 Advertising Technology and Platform Accountability ‎

Resources & Links:

Rob Leathern (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)

Dave Kleidermacher (https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekleidermacher/)