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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

#71

Post by ehsankia »

viraptor wrote: post #57
askvictor wrote: post #39

Here's a the same story via the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/australia... A quote contained within both stories: > The software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from Android devices each month Given that my data plan is 1.5 GB/month, I would notice if a gigabyte magically disappeared every month (it doesn't). Hopefully the ACCC has enough skepticism…

Unknown English text compresses ~1:6 if I remember correctly. Known can be compressed better. There's also ways to send incremental updates where you say "previous 0.999GB hasn't changed". I'm not saying that's what they do, but you can have many scenarios when you get 1gb of information without transferring 1gb of data.

But that's not what the article is claiming. They are saying Google is using 1GB worth of data, though with very little evidence to backup their claim.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#72

Post by brylie »

flashman wrote: post #33

> "The information fed back to Google includes barometric pressure readings so it can work out, for example, which level of a shopping mall you are on." I scoffed, but this is actually a thing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431287/ (It's also useful for weather observations, see the old PressureNET.io site for an opt-in version.) Anyway, my monthly mobile data usage for Google services is 110 MB and t…

I would really like to explicitly tell Google to stop tracking my location. Period. Despite what might be in their terms of service,this tracking is a violation of privacy. I have never given informed consent to such locstion tracking, and still get prompts to 'rate this location' despite having explicitly disabled location history. Google location tracking is increasingly unethical.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#73

Post by ehsankia »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #4
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #3

So, my read on it is basically that the claim is that Google's data collection on Android costs users a lot of money in data charges. It's probably a fairly reasonable point to bring up since almost everything could be done on-device if Google didn't have specific interest in people's user data, but it's also very hard to argue that Google doesn't have user permission to do it, assuming EULAs nobody reads or can unde…

This might be another situation where GDPR saves the day; Google will need to push updates out to limit their data collection, as well as reveal the full scope of their data collection activities with Android.

Except that Timeline in Google maps has been GDPR compliant for a long long time.

1. You can opt out

2. You can see all your data

3. You can export all your data

4. You can delete all your data

Also, they have very little evidence for their claims that it's actually using that much data. From my experience, Google only syncs on wifi and rarely wastes your mobile data.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#74

Post by askvictor »

anonytrary wrote: post #58
askvictor wrote: post #39

Here's a the same story via the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/australia... A quote contained within both stories: > The software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from Android devices each month Given that my data plan is 1.5 GB/month, I would notice if a gigabyte magically disappeared every month (it doesn't). Hopefully the ACCC has enough skepticism…

I used to be paranoid about companies using my microphone and camera to spy on me until I realized the data costs associated with the spying would be so great, that I'd notice. That single argument has ended my paranoia on the matter. I hope others can be at ease. That said, I still put tape on my laptop and refuse all tracking and ad requests.

That's assuming they're listening/watching all the time. Google Assistant (and all the other assistants) wake up on a certain magic word; who's to say that other apps/companies aren't doing the same? Well, probably your battery life might be terrible and your phone running unusually hot, but Assistant and co get away with minimal battery usage...

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#75

Post by ocdtrekkie »

ehsankia wrote: post #71
viraptor wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unknown English text compresses ~1:6 if I remember correctly. Known can be compressed better. There's also ways to send incremental updates where you say "previous 0.999GB hasn't changed". I'm not saying that's what they do, but you can have many scenarios when you get 1gb of information without transferring 1gb of data.

But that's not what the article is claiming. They are saying Google is using 1GB worth of data, though with very little evidence to backup their claim.

What are you basing your claim they have "very little evidence" on? Do you have access to the full contents of what they presented to the ACCC? Presumably this brief news article doesn't contain all of the information on the matter.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#76

Post by dibstern »

askvictor wrote: post #39

Here's a the same story via the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/14/australia... A quote contained within both stories: > The software company Oracle revealed Google could be harvesting a gigabyte of data from Android devices each month Given that my data plan is 1.5 GB/month, I would notice if a gigabyte magically disappeared every month (it doesn't). Hopefully the ACCC has enough skepticism…

The article could easily make the false presumption that wi-fi isn’t used to transmit the data. You seem awfully keen to dismiss this.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#77

Post by ehsankia »

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.

I don't understand what the problem is. You can turn off location tracking in Google Maps. You can see all the data it has collected in your activity page, and you can delete all of it too. Sure, the fact that it's opt-out instead of opt-in is dodgy, but to be fair, the majority of the features we use everyday such as traffic estimation wouldn't exist without this data.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#78

Post by askvictor »

ehsankia wrote: post #66
askvictor wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, however, the article states: > The experts, from computer and software corporation Oracle, claim Google is draining roughly one gigabyte of mobile data monthly from Android phone users’ accounts as it snoops in the background, collecting information to help advertisers. Then goes on to give a cost breakdown of how much this hypothetical data download is costing Australian's via their mobile data connections.

The article does state that, but there's zero evidence backing it. It also doesn't help that said experts are from Oracle, which aren't really the most unbiased source when it comes to Google news.

Well, that's kind of my point. Yes, you could hypothetically transmit 1 GB/month batched to use wifi, but the article in question is saying it's using your mobile data (to sow FUD). There is no evidence that Google is sending 1GB/month of data over wifi either.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#79

Post by askvictor »

brylie wrote: post #72
flashman wrote: post #33

> "The information fed back to Google includes barometric pressure readings so it can work out, for example, which level of a shopping mall you are on." I scoffed, but this is actually a thing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4431287/ (It's also useful for weather observations, see the old PressureNET.io site for an opt-in version.) Anyway, my monthly mobile data usage for Google services is 110 MB and t…

I would really like to explicitly tell Google to stop tracking my location. Period. Despite what might be in their terms of service,this tracking is a violation of privacy. I have never given informed consent to such locstion tracking, and still get prompts to 'rate this location' despite having explicitly disabled location history. Google location tracking is increasingly unethical.

I think your realistic options are to move the EU or to stop using Google. Maybe one day they'll offer a subscription based fee for it's services, but for now you pay with your data.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#80

Post by Fins »

greesil wrote: post #6

Shouldn't all this data just be uploaded over wifi?

Maybe it should, but in my experience Android is perfectly happy to automatically update Play Services and Service for Instant Apps (whatever the hell that is) over the cell network, despite settings being set to manual update on WiFi. Which is a Windows 10 level of obnoxiousness. So I wouldn't be surprised if they were sending stuff over customer's metered connection.
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