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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @06:52PM (9 children)
Not really any news here. Of course, if you use Google Play Music, Google will know what music you listen to. If you watch videos on YouTube, they know what videos you watched. And if you use Google search, they will know what you searched for. Why would anyone expect them not to? And we already know that they will track your location if you have location turned on.
Most of the rest of the "tracking" is checking for app updates and the like, which is a communication to Google, but it doesn't actually give them any information. It tells them what apps you installed, but they already knew that.
And they also track you via advertising, but that doesn't have much to do with Android. At least you still have the choice to use Firefox - with ad blockers - even on Android.
Certainly Google collects a lot of information. But there's nothing really new in the report that I can see. Most of it is just common sense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @07:32PM (2 children)
Fuck Google. I go out of my way to disable everything. last thing left on this phone is their keyvoard and play services. ill try to disabled those this week.
(Score: 3, Touché) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 27 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
Well, if you need a new keyboard app, you might want to search for one with an apostrophe. Also, your shift and 'b' keys seem out of whack. Lastly, you might want to check to be sure the new app doesn't insert an extraneous 'd' here and there.
I mean, yeah, if Google's keyboard produces output like this, I'd definitely get rid of it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Monday August 27 2018, @09:33PM
Touchscreens are a pain to operate with tinfoil mittens.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:07AM (3 children)
That makes me really sad as I've been re-discovering all the music from the days of my youth.
Until just recently I started listening to YouTube while all those video kilowatt-hours fell on my floor, I only listened to MP3s and FLACs from CDs that I ripped myself.
I'll go back to just the CDs.
Some of my very favorite albums I bought from street musicians. That's why I'm working on one of my own, A Capella singing - that is, singing all by myself, with no instrumental accompaniment:
Michael David Crawford
&nbps;&nbps;&nbps;&nbps;&nbps;&nbps;LIVE!
&nbps;&nbps;On Broadway
(And Morrison in Portland, Oregon)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:22AM (2 children)
Install NewPipe from f-droid or their repository. It allows you to view and even "subscribe" to channels without any official google services, at least if you are on Android. It even has a "listen" option that allows you to just rip the audio so the screen can be off.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:43AM (1 child)
That had slipped my mind. Thanks for stimulating that I even posted about that a month or so ago.
I'll fire up some Sisters Of Mercy momentarily.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @05:00PM
I always thought in that 'corrision' song they were singing a gospel about Smith Corona printers.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:23AM (1 child)
Please to be explaining that the one percent of the population that has Schizophrenia as well as another one percent that has Manic Depression has common sense.
Consider that from early to mid-July I got manic then spent fifteen grand in eleven glorious days [warplife.com] and am now back to dining at the Portland Rescue Mission [portlandrescuemission.org] as well as getting all my groceries from food pantries.
Enough said.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @02:37PM
If i did that I'd lose my house
So, I don't.
All my money except some pocket change goes in an account managed by someone else
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday August 27 2018, @06:55PM (10 children)
Knowing that it could theoretically be done is one thing, but having some hard evidence that they are seriously tracking is another. I may have to bite the bullet and get Lineage OS setup on my phone. I'm assuming, it shouldn't have the same issues?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday August 27 2018, @07:22PM
It shouldn't have any, although you can select to report some info to Lineage, I think. It's kind of annoying that they say "Android", when it's really Google's software running on Android. Don't like it, use FDroid and load your favourite replacements. You need to be pretty committed to get by without the Play Store though.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 27 2018, @07:49PM (8 children)
I've seen Google Maps clear out red traffic jam status on roads I'm driving through just after the jam cleared, almost as if they're seeing me roll through at the speed limit and coloring the road green as I pass through.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 5, Informative) by EvilSS on Monday August 27 2018, @07:56PM (2 children)
They are. That's how they generate traffic data. From you and everyone else with google maps.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday August 27 2018, @09:01PM (1 child)
Yep. Not sure how GP thought they got all of that random traffic data... It's tracking the phones running traffic/map apps. How else would they come by traffic data on some random rural road you're driving on??
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday August 27 2018, @09:47PM
/s
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @11:06PM (1 child)
Jokes on you if the person that "cleared" a traffic jam was on a motorcycle and ran down between lanes -- with their phone turned on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @11:57PM
Jokes on the person carrying a (smart)phone.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @11:35PM (2 children)
Yup, so how anonymous is your data? And the meta data from different "anonymous" sources often can unveil your anonymity with 99.99% accuracy.
People working with the data are usually too preoccupied with the cool shit they're able to do and won't understand why no one else is quite as thrilled as they are. They have blinders on and just hand wave away the bad things as unlikely or the worst "there is no expectation of privacy anymore" as if the fact that someone can see you driving down the road is even close to the same thing as mass privacy violations.
We are building a web that will trap us all and it will become increasingly difficult to dig the tumor out once it creeps into so much of our infrastructure.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:20AM
And one of only a very few Facebook users.
Consider the challenges faced by closeted gay right-wing Republicans.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:39AM
Infringen yer copyright [warplife.com].
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Monday August 27 2018, @07:12PM
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.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 5, Informative) by pTamok on Monday August 27 2018, @08:12PM (5 children)
If you want to stop data being sent to Google, you need to disable Google Play Services, which is a proprietary layer on top of the open-ish Android layer. Google actively 'encourage' App developers to access functions (like Location Services) through the Google Play Services API, which makes the App developers life easier at the expense of making Google Play Services a dependency. No Google Play Services, no App. Hence, although Android, the Operating System is more of less open (if you discount the binary blobs in firmware/drivers), you are actually forced to use their proprietary software layer to use Apps. Using Lineage doesn't stop this - in fact many people look for solutions to get Google Play Services running on their LineageOS phones to get access to the Apps they want to use.
You can do without, and use Apps from F-Droid - but that means no Facebook, WhatsApp etc, and no Android Pay, and no Google Apps, like Maps.
There is a project to replicate the Google Play Services API - the microG project, producing the microGMS core - but that comes with its own problems, requiring you to enable signature spoofing for system applications, which some regard as a big security no-no.
Essentially, the vast majority of Android users are stuck using Google Play Services, and all the data collection that proprietary software layer enables. Google have been very good at boiling the frogs. Most phone manufacturers want to offer the Google Apps on their phones, and the agreement for doing so requires them to enable Google Play Services. So most phones are effectively locked into proprietary, closed data collection for Google. You have to work very hard and give up a lot of convenience to not use Google. Most Internet Banking Apps will now check for the presence of Google Play Services and rely on its security model to assure that the phone has not been rooted etc. It actually doeasn't matter how free and ope source Android is, now that people are locked into the Google ecosystem.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @11:04PM (1 child)
You say that as if it's a bad thing.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday August 28 2018, @04:15AM
Does F-Droid still run other apps... like MAPS.ME, Simple GPS, WabbitEMU, and FTP Server Pro? ( Like those gotten from Aptoide and similar? )
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2, Informative) by pTamok on Tuesday August 28 2018, @07:59AM
I should point out that my observations are not original, and in fact you can read an amplified version with more detail in this Ars Technica article (which I found after writing my previous comment).
Ars Technica: Google’s iron grip on Android: Controlling open source by any means necessary [arstechnica.com]
It first ran on October 20, 2013, and was republished with updates on July 21, 2018.
The result is that, in the mass market, it is very, very, difficult to avoid Google's data collection, unless you use Apple iPhones.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @10:16AM
Mobile Chrome I expect.
But Firefox is available for Android. Oh, sorry.
Perhaps there is a browser for Android that psychotics like me can use without stimulating our paranoia?
A significant advantage of using Mobile Websites as opposed to Mobile Apps is that it is significantly more difficult - but _not_ impossible! - to embed Mobile Websites with all the analytics that one can with Mobile Apps, where they know about your every tap.
You can block about half the Mobile Website analytics by unlocking your bootloader - and yes, Google really _does_ document how to do that, so as to enable you to develop your own firmware - then blackholing all the web bug servers in your phones /etc/hosts.
You can do that in iPhone to: once you've jailbroken in, you'll find that iOS Looks Just Like macOS - the operating system formerly known as "Mac OS X" - and has _many_ open source components for which apple really _does_ supply source:
https://opensource.apple.com/ [apple.com]
Anyway once you've jbed your iToy just scp your new hosts file to your phone.
But you can't use Facebook while at the same time blocking the Facebook Pixel. FB somehow manages to avoid being burnt in effigy by calling it a "Pixel" and not a "Web Bug".
What I'd like to do is write an HTTP Proxy within an App that would randomly change the ID number that's a query parameter to the Pixel's URL.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @02:39PM
connect a bank account to an android phone?
that's just nuts
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @08:20PM (3 children)
I can install a new rom on the android phone making it so that it doesn't call home to google AT ALL. It's flat out stupid to be ok with somthing you dont like because it does it less then the alternative when you can mitigate the issue entirely with 20 minutes to an hour of effort.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Monday August 27 2018, @09:46PM (2 children)
> you can mitigate the issue entirely with 20 minutes to an hour of effort
For you and I.
99% of the users would have no clue, and/or be afraid to break their shiny toy.
Some are aware of the privacy problem, others are not, are too dependent on apps from the Play store, or don't care.
Apathy and convenience win.
Electronic stuff is hard.
Have you seen the latest Kim meme ?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday August 28 2018, @04:25AM (1 child)
I just bought some new Android phones... and they are driving me batty.
Any hints of where I should start? ( You are right, I do not want to break my shiny new toy, but I am damned close to either shipping the things back, or going ahead and risking breaking them for the experience of learning how to re-image the ROM image in them... ).
BLU Grand XL ( $60 cheapie from Amazon ). Cyanogenmod? ( does not look like they have an image for this particular phone... will other images for other BLU phones maybe work? ), F-Droid?
I have just about resigned myself that I am going to have to learn how to do this, or tolerate all the crap I am being bombarded with. And I really hate it when companies fling crap at me this way. I will take just so much of it before it becomes worth my while to learn crap avoidance and ducking techniques.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Informative) by pTamok on Tuesday August 28 2018, @06:30AM
Cyanogenmod [wikipedia.org] is no longer developed. there is a story behind that, but what you need to know is that the idea was continued in LineageOS [wikipedia.org]. LineageOS is built upon the open Android source (AOSP [wikipedia.org]). People are working on building other, non-Android operating systems for mobile phones - obviously Apple, but also several small hobbiest attempts, as well as business, such as Jolla with their Sailfish OS [wikipedia.org], and Microsoft..
As for your BLU Grand XL, it doesn't appear on the list of devices that you can run LineageOS on [lineageos.org], so you don't appear to have many options.
F-Droid is the 'App Store' that has only free and open source applications in it. It is not an Operating System.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 27 2018, @10:38PM (1 child)
your own level of involvement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @08:11AM
Old previously owned feature phone. Zero data to either google or apple.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @09:58AM (2 children)
- recently was offered.
There was quite a long time that I wanted to work there in the very worst way, but that hasn't been the case for several years now.
I spent quite a lot of time thinking over what I should say to their internal recruiter. However insightfully I might express myself just didn't seem right. So tomorrow or so I'll send hear a dead tree letter in which I respectfully assert that:
"Google has lost its moral compass."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 28 2018, @05:03PM
Perhaps you should at least attend the interview and learn from the experience.
You might want to 'leave the door open'. Sometimes, change has to come from the inside, and other times it has to be federally mandated.
You just may be able to help influence from the inside.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 29 2018, @11:44AM
Oh come on, give em a try
Worst that can happen is they pay you a wage and you walk away when bored or upset
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday August 28 2018, @11:33AM
I've had this domain as well as some related ones so as to prevent squatters for a while now. When I get paid I'll add nine more years to pixelbegone.org's registration.
It happens that political campaign websites were the very worst offenders that I was able to find when I was studying this problem during the 2012 campaign. By posting just this right now, as well as digging up then verifying the Jesus Big hosts file I wrote back then, I'm hoping that I can positively impact the outcome of my Mother Country's upcoming election.
It happens that Caltech alumni get a significant discount when we place ads in The California Tech [caltech.edu]. Really I'd like my first Shot Across The Bow to be in the San Jose Mercury News but that would be far more money than I've got.
Us Alums can place full-page black and white ads in The Tech for just three hundred fifty Samoleons. How cool can that be?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]