SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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