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Google collects metadata from Android phones

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Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#101

Post by jsprogrammer »

gcb0 wrote: post #99
jsprogrammer wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to that diff, Google moved from opt-in sharing of DoubleClick cookies, to...potentially default-in, with a possible opt-out option buried in some unidentified settings page?

gotta love the double standard. when verizon did their super cokie, everyone went crazy (as they should). now that its google (doing that since before verizon it seems) the top coment is a googler throwing the issue to the side in a hitchhikers-guide-to-galaxy way ("you should have checked the alpha centaury records in 2012")

The privacy policy actually says you don't have to check:

>Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent.

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#102

Post by srcreigh »

Navarr wrote: post #88
microtonal wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I have my doubts that this applies to a generic call/sms on any old Android device. Does it matter? This is completely in line with their privacy strategy the last few years. Slowly add new terms to the privacy policy, so that people find it acceptable. When asked, point to some unharmful or obvious application. At any rate, it makes it possible to do what the article stated. And since a lot of s…

Isn't Messenger AOSP?

It's not. Google stopped open sourcing a lot of their apps with Android L. IIRC the material Calendar app also isn't open source.

Source: I was working on https://github.com/moezbhatti/qksms when Messenger was released.

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#103

Post by throwanem »

dublinben wrote: post #66
goombastic wrote: post #65

Half the enterprise apps I know stop working on cyanogen. Is there an alternative? Also is there a way to separate work and personal phone usage on a single device? Tools like mobile iron seem to demand all of my info be made available for whatever it deems fit for the corporate I work for.

The alternative is a physically distinct work and personal device. This has been the solution for many years. Only recently have people wanted to "BYOD" and use their personal device for work purposes.

On that point, I very recently discovered [1] that connecting an iOS device to an Exchange account via ActiveSync enables the organization's Exchange administrators to remotely wipe the entire contents of the device - not just the content actually provided via the account, but everything.

I am astonished and disappointed that Apple saw fit not to warn the user this could happen. Even Google gets this right; when you connect an Android device, you get a warning and are required to confirm before proceeding. It's inexcusable that Apple doesn't do the same - while I understand and agree with the reasoning behind the existence of the capability, the fact that it's silently enabled is appalling.

[1] Yes, I know it's hardly news, but (I flatter myself that) I'm generally reasonably savvy, and if I only just found out about it, then there's probably someone else reading this thread who could benefit from it being mentioned. So I mention it.

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#104

Post by magicalist »

gcb0 wrote: post #99
jsprogrammer wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to that diff, Google moved from opt-in sharing of DoubleClick cookies, to...potentially default-in, with a possible opt-out option buried in some unidentified settings page?

gotta love the double standard. when verizon did their super cokie, everyone went crazy (as they should). now that its google (doing that since before verizon it seems) the top coment is a googler throwing the issue to the side in a hitchhikers-guide-to-galaxy way ("you should have checked the alpha centaury records in 2012")

> when verizon did their super cokie, everyone went crazy (as they should). now that its google...

to be fair, one was a thing that happened, the other is a "by my reading of the ToS, they could do this"

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#105

Post by noir_lord »

reacharavindh wrote: post #97

So, we are pretty much bound to choose between Android and iOS, because of the whole apps platform thing. I've always considered Google to be evil if not proven otherwise. It is a simple conflict of interest to trust Google with the user's privacy. They make money by creating profiles on users and serving relevant ads. I'd be an idiot to keep on asking them to play nice and respect my privacy. Apple on the other hand…

> So, I guess the only choice is to stay paranoid and not trust your phone with any sensitive private data.

Your metadata is sensitive private data, who you call, when you call them and how often you call them is sensitive.

Suicide Hotlines, Charities for LGBT people, Medical Numbers etc all build a picture about you and that's beyond personal contacts.

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#106

Post by tunap »

artimaeis wrote: post #85
GrumpyYoungMan wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a recent HN article: http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2016/06/what-is-diff... " Starting with iOS 10, Apple is using Differential Privacy technology to help discover the usage patterns of a large number of users without compromising individual privacy. " To paraphrase, Apple has been collecting telemetry all along and is announcing that they're starting to a new proprietary algorithm to obfuscate it a bit…

You and I are reading that a different way. I see it as they're going to be able to collect this data for the first time since they've found a way to do so without compromising privacy. Their privacy page seems to agree with my interpretation: https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/en-ww/ Though since iOS is closed source - we can't know for certain.

Cannot find specifics now(my N900 doesn't render many pages anymore), but it was widely known prior to 2010 that snApple slurps data every 45 min, or 16 x's a day. When I read that I thought it was an interesting coincidence that the ISS circles the Earth at the same rate.

Possible discussion from 2011, cannot open the page:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3200399?start=0&tstart=...

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#107

Post by CaptSpify »

awqrre wrote: post #89
avckp wrote: post #45

So we need a fork that runs sans Gapps

I would rather have a true GNU Linux phone/mobile computer...

I would pay a decent amount for a good phone like this. I'm wondering how the ubuntu phone is doing. I'd love it to become available

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#108

Post by throwanem »

gsnedders wrote: post #64
deadowl wrote: post #54

I know that at least Sprint already does this. You can typically see your call log on the bills, but getting text messages requires a notarized form. https://support.sprint.com/support/article/Get_your_text_mes...

Pretty much every telecom company keeps call logs for the sake of verifiability of the billing.

Telecom companies have a reasonable need for the information. (It's also impossible for them not to have it; otherwise they couldn't provide service at all.) Device manufacturers, not so much.

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#109

Post by k-mcgrady »

johnsea wrote: post #33

A Gooxit would be in order. From time to time I wonder why the EU accepts foreign companies stealing so much personal data. China did the right thing. We should learn from them. India, afaik, also has better protection.

>> From time to time I wonder why the EU accepts foreign companies stealing so much personal data.

Isn't the EU trying to fix this by tearing up safe harbour and instituting new legislation?

Re: Google collects metadata from Android phones

#110

Post by kyrra »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #87
delroth wrote: post #82

The article seems to imply that this is a recent addition to the privacy policy. Google keeps archived versions of their privacy policies ( https://www.google.de/intl/en/policies/privacy/archive/ ), and you can easily see that the "telephony log information" was added in the March 1st 2012 revision of the Google privacy policy. You can see a summary on https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/02/what-actually-changed-... A…

According to that diff, Google moved from opt-in sharing of DoubleClick cookies, to...potentially default-in, with a possible opt-out option buried in some unidentified settings page?

My guess this may be related to personalized ads that you can configure here: https://www.google.com/ads/preferences

You can control a lot of what you see from that page (which has been around for at least 6 years).

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