Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday October 13 2021, @05:19PM   Printer-friendly

Android Phones Still Track You, Even When You Opt Out:

If you use an Android phone and are (rightfully!) worried about digital privacy, you’ve probably taken care of the basics already. You’ve deleted the snoopiest of the snoopy apps, opted out of tracking whenever possible, and taken all of the other precautions the popular how-to privacy guides have told you to. The bad news—and you might want to sit down for this—is that none of those steps are enough to be fully free of trackers.

Or at least, that’s the thrust of a new paper from researchers at Trinity College in Dublin who took a look at the data-sharing habits of some popular variants of Android’s OS, including those developed by Samsung, Xiaomi, and Huawei. According to the researchers, “with little configuration” right out of the box and when left sitting idle, these devices would incessantly ping back device data to the OS’s developers and a slew of selected third parties. And what’s worse is that there’s often no way to opt out of this data-pinging, even if users want to.

A lot of the blame here, as the researchers point out, fall on so-called “system apps.” These are apps that come pre-installed by the hardware manufacturer on a certain device in order to offer a certain kind of functionality: a camera or messages app are examples. Android generally packages these apps into what’s known as the device’s “read only memory” (ROM), which means you can’t delete or modify these apps without, well, rooting your device. And until you do, the researchers found they were constantly sending device data back to their parent company and more than a few third parties—even if you never opened the app at all.

Here’s an example: Let’s say you own a Samsung device that happens to be packaged with some Microsoft bloatware pre-installed, including (ugh) LinkedIn. Even though there’s a good chance you’ll never open LinkedIn for any reason, that hard-coded app is constantly pinging back to Microsoft’s servers with details about your device. In this case, it’s so-called “telemetry data,” which includes details like your device’s unique identifier, and the number of Microsoft apps you have installed on your phone. This data also gets shared with any third-party analytics providers these apps might have plugged in, which typically means Google, since Google Analytics is the reigning king of all the analytics tools out there.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:28PM (3 children)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:28PM (#1186794) Journal

    Example: Google knows, right now, that you wrote that post AND where you probably posted it from and what your real name is...

    I strongly doubt it.

    and it doesn't even matter if you posted that from an Android phone or a Google-branded browser.

    Neither.

    Apple likely doesn't

    Obviously not, since I didn't post from any Apple device. But if I did, what exactly does make you so sure about that? That Apple says so? Sorry, I'm not going to take any company's word on that.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:32PM (2 children)

    by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:32PM (#1186797)

    Obviously not, since I didn't post from any Apple device. But if I did, what exactly does make you so sure about that?

    For one thing I don't give Apple the data I give Google.

    --
    🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
    • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:48PM (1 child)

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday October 13 2021, @09:48PM (#1186807) Journal

      In which way is the data you chose to give to Google tell them anything about me?

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
      • (Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday October 13 2021, @10:23PM

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 13 2021, @10:23PM (#1186813)
        Okay I admit I phrased that in a dumbshit way, but come on, you know what I meant. If you're using an Android phone you're giving Google more data points they can correlate with your web searches AND in many cases they can correlate it with ads they've served on various sites across the whole internet. Apple, however, lacks that reach.

        But, hey, while we're here let's run with my original phrasing for a second: Do you really think Google does not have info on you that others haven't given them? Like a buddy that has you on their contact list, or a gmail user who has corresponded with you? Do you really think Google's information on you is identical in quantity to Apple's? I mean Google's crawler is watching this conversation right now. Just for fun search for this phrase and include the quotes: "That one is easy: About 600W. Almost all the energy that goes in the card is turned into heat."
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈