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Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

theguardian.com

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Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#21

Post by kelnos »

dingo_bat wrote: post #10

Android is the biggest example of how companies practice bait and switch under the banner of "open source". I's rather have fully proprietary software that respects my privacy than open source software that opens up my private data.

My guess here is that most of the tracking bits are implemented through the Google Play Services app/service, which is fully closed source. This isn't an open vs. closed thing... unless someone would want to make the point that this sort of tracking would be easier to find and verify if the software doing it actually was open source.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#22

Post by dingo_bat »

chrisper wrote: post #18
patrickg_zill wrote: post #17

Google is fundamentally dishonest. Example: my phone has both a Wifi and GPS chip. I open Maps and it tells me it can't give me navigation unless I turn on Location Services or whatever, which allows them to use the Wifi to scan for APs or whatever else they do. It's 100% a lie, because any other GPS based navigation system (such as TomTom, Magellan GPS devices) can in fact do this; and they have far less CPU power t…

As far as I understand is that "Location Services" is a catch all for wifi,gps etc. But if you only want it to use GPS, then change Location Services from High Accuracy to GPS only.

Yes and everytime you open google maps it will bug you. It will say "turn on background wifi scanning if you want to use navigation". You can dismiss it and it still works fine! Because of course it doesn't need background wifi scanning for navigation. Oh and be ready to get nagged every time you open the app. They won't let up.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#23

Post by dingo_bat »

tensor wrote: post #19
patrickg_zill wrote: post #17

Google is fundamentally dishonest. Example: my phone has both a Wifi and GPS chip. I open Maps and it tells me it can't give me navigation unless I turn on Location Services or whatever, which allows them to use the Wifi to scan for APs or whatever else they do. It's 100% a lie, because any other GPS based navigation system (such as TomTom, Magellan GPS devices) can in fact do this; and they have far less CPU power t…

That's not a lie, it's describing the way they wrote their software. Yes, they could have written it to use only GPS, but it's not written that way.

It is written that way. If you dismiss that prompt it goes away and works just fine.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#24

Post by shagie »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #17

Google is fundamentally dishonest. Example: my phone has both a Wifi and GPS chip. I open Maps and it tells me it can't give me navigation unless I turn on Location Services or whatever, which allows them to use the Wifi to scan for APs or whatever else they do. It's 100% a lie, because any other GPS based navigation system (such as TomTom, Magellan GPS devices) can in fact do this; and they have far less CPU power t…

The cold start for a GPS can take several the better part of a minute. Using WiFi or other information to get an improvement on the cold and warm start times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_to_first_fix

A relevant patent https://patents.google.com/patent/US20020142783

https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/230305/warm-...

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#25

Post by yuhong »

https://twitter.com/berendjanwever/status/775366191078641664

"One of the reasons I left Google was because "don't be evil" got replaced by "collect and monetize information""

Notice I asked them for more info to help trace back the problems, but received little response. I wonder how for example Larry and Sergey are involved.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#26

Post by merb »

gpm wrote: post #13
mike_n wrote: post #2

Is it not assumed/expected that if you're using android then google has access to all your phone's data/sensors?

Of course it isn't. I own the phone, not Google. Do you expect Apple to listen to your conversations just because you use a mac and it has a microphone? Do you expect Toyota to track you everywhere you go because your car came with a GPS system? Building the system, let alone just making the software, doesn't give you the rights to all the data it produces after you sell it.

> Of course it isn't. I own the phone, not Google.

Maybe the phone, but not the software running on it.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#27

Post by kyrra »

yuhong wrote: post #25

https://twitter.com/berendjanwever/status/775366191078641664 "One of the reasons I left Google was because "don't be evil" got replaced by "collect and monetize information"" Notice I asked them for more info to help trace back the problems, but received little response. I wonder how for example Larry and Sergey are involved.

Google Play Services provides the location services API to most apps on your phone.

https://developer.android.com/training/location/

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#28

Post by lucb1e »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #17

Google is fundamentally dishonest. Example: my phone has both a Wifi and GPS chip. I open Maps and it tells me it can't give me navigation unless I turn on Location Services or whatever, which allows them to use the Wifi to scan for APs or whatever else they do. It's 100% a lie, because any other GPS based navigation system (such as TomTom, Magellan GPS devices) can in fact do this; and they have far less CPU power t…

Can confirm, the maps app would ignore an existing GPS fix (obtained by osmand) and tell me it doesn't know where I am. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it insisted I permit it to track me first. Not sure what this depended on, maybe the app version, maybe whether WiFi was on... But indeed, I'd call it dishonest to claim not to be able to get a location when it is, in fact, available and ready.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#29

Post by exodust »

Get ad-blockers and grains of salt ready before clicking on News Limited Daily Tele stories.

I find this claim doubtful...

> "The Oracle experts say phone owners’ data ends up being consumed even if Google Maps is not in use or aeroplane mode is switched on."

It's called "flight mode" on my android, and I highly doubt my data is being used when flight mode is activated.

With that said, Google does get pushy and invasive. Maps is annoying how it bugs you to go online and turn location settings on just to see a map. If I already know where I am, and only need to see a map, I shouldn't need to go online. Google have reluctantly allowed "offline maps" in recent times, but in typical Google fashion, the offline maps "expire" after only 30 days.

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