Google added a number of new features to Android with its latest release, Android 12. One of those features is the Privacy Dashboard, and in this article, we’ll show you how to access it. This is actually really simple to do, as the Privacy Dashboard is a part of standard settings in Android 12. You don’t really need to flip any hidden switches, or jump through any sort of hoops in order to access it.
We’ll show you how to do it one step at a time, and you’ll also find some screenshots down below, to help you along the way. We’re demoing this on the Pixel 4a, which runs stock Android 12, by the way. Once other OEMs get Android 12, the location of this feature may be in a different place, and some OEMs may omit it completely. In any case, let’s get started, shall we.
How to find the Privacy dashboard in Android 12
The first thing you need to do, of course, is access your phone’s settings. Swipe up on your homescreen, and locate the “Settings” app.
Once you enter settings, there are actually two ways you can access the Privacy Dashboard. The first one is by searching for it, via the general “Search settings”, as shown in the image below.
The second way is to find it manually. In order to do that, you’ll need to find the “Privacy” submenu in your phone’s settings. The one containing permissions, account activity, personal data, and so on.
Inside of that menu, you’ll immediately notice the “Privacy dashboard” submenu. It also comes with an explanation, it says that it shows which apps recently used permissions. That is the whole purpose of the Privacy Dashboard. In any case, tap that option.
As you can see in the screenshot below, we’re not in the Privacy dashboard. The phone I used to demo this feature is not my primary device at the moment, so I didn’t really use it all that much. You can still see that the location is used by three apps at the moment, and camera by one app. There is a nice pie chart at the top, and you can access other permissions at the bottom.