Android has tracked location info regardless of privacy settings

mercurial

mercurial

MyBB Legend
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
40,900
Reaction score
2,693
Location
/\/¯¯¯¯¯\/\
Android has tracked location info regardless of privacy settings

When you tell your phone to stop sharing your location, you expect it to honor your request, don't you? Unfortunately, that hasn't been entirely true with Android as of late. Quartz has confirmed that, starting in early 2017, Android phones have been sending the addresses of nearby cellular towers and sending it back to Google, regardless of your location sharing settings -- even if you didn't have cell service turned on and hadn't used any apps. In theory, Google or an intruder could have triangulated your approximate position using the data for multiple towers.

A Google spokesperson stressed that the tower info, known as Cell ID codes, wasn't being used and was tossed out as soon as it was received. The company had been "looking into" using the data to speed up message delivery. Also, Google has promised to end the behavior. Android phones will stop sending Cell ID by the end of November.

The immediate threat to your privacy wasn't high, then. Google wasn't spying on people, and a hacker wouldn't have found a treasure trove of data sitting on Google's servers. However, the real concern is that Google decided to transmit location info despite your privacy settings, using a service (the network sync system) you couldn't turn off. Simply put, the company wasn't fully respecting your intentions -- you couldn't completely eliminate the risk of location-based surveillance.
Click to expand...
 
Also, Google has promised to end the behavior. Android phones will stop sending Cell ID by the end of November.
Click to expand...
Stop sending is one things. Why do they activate cellular radio in first place, when cellular services are supposed to be turned off?

Next time they will be encrypting all traffic, like Microsoft do.
 
I've noticed this, because sometimes I would get notifications to rate places I've been (on a certain date, ie: last month) on Google maps, when I know my location data is off, its always off, and I've gone to that shopping mall 45646465465 times before.
 
but mah androidz! iz so much betta than the apple!

on a serious note, google hasn't really been the "people's" company for a while, it's all about how much data they can collect on people.
 
crackersa said:
but mah androidz! iz so much betta than the apple!

on a serious note, google hasn't really been the "people's" company for a while, it's all about how much data they can collect on people.
Click to expand...

You think Apple is not collecting and sharing data?
 
lol starting early 2017 and as if its only google and android
 
where did I say that? I didn't even imply that.

one would have to be an idiot to think apple doesn't collect data.

hell, every company out there is collecting data.
 
Google admits tracking users' location even when setting disabled

A recent report reveals Android has been forcing location tracking on even if a user had chosen to turn it off. An investigation by Quartz discovered that smartphones and tablets running the Android operating system continued to track a user's general location even when location services were turned off, the phone didn't have a SIM card, and no apps were installed. As long as the device was connected to the internet, it transmitted the address of nearby cellphone towers back to Google's system that's used for push notifications and messages.

Android devices have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers since the beginning of the year, giving Google access to location information that goes "far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy."

"It is really a mystery as to why this is not optional," Matthew Hickey, a security expert and researcher at London-based Hacker House, told Quartz. "It seems quite intrusive for Google to be collecting such information that is only relevant to carrier networks when there are no SIM card or enabled services."

Google said it chose to end the practice right after the Quartz report was brought to its attention.

https://www.speedguide.net/news/google-admits-tracking-users-location-even-when-6545

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/21...g-cell-tower-data-android-os-firebase-privacy
 
I've long since stopped giving a **** about google tracking me. I use far too many of their services to notice where the line is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X