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posted by martyb on Monday August 27 2018, @06:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the turn-it-off dept.

An idle Android smartphone sends user data back to Google servers nearly ten times more frequently as an Apple device sends data back to Apple servers.

This is just one of the many findings of a 55-page research paper [pdf] published this week by research agency Digital Content Next. The research looked at what type of data is sent back to Google servers from idle Android devices.

The overall conclusion of the research is that Google tracks its users more often and collects more information about their movements and behavior when compared to Apple or to Google's ability to track users on Apple devices.

[...] For starters, researchers said that while a user interacts with a phone, 46% of all communications sent to Google servers were to Google's publisher and advertiser products, such as Google Analytics, DoubleClick, AdWords, and AdSense.

"Magnitude wise, Google's servers communicated 11.6 MB of data per day (or 0.35 GB/month) with the Android device," researchers said. "This experiment suggests that even if a user does not interact with any key Google applications, Google is still able to collect considerable information through its advertiser and publisher products."

[...] Moreover, even if most of the data Google collects about users is anonymized, researchers said that there are various details that Google accumulates from the same device that can deanonymize users.

For example, researchers said that advertising identifiers such as DoubleClick cookie IDs allow Google to track a user across web pages and apps, and associate "anonymous users" with known Google accounts.

Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/idle-android-phones-send-data-to-google-ten-times-more-often-than-ios-devices-to-apple/


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday August 27 2018, @07:12PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 27 2018, @07:12PM (#727084) Journal

    This is why you should always be using your phone. Your face should be glued to it constantly. A public service campaign should promote the importance of this.

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    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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