Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 201 posts

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#91

Post by stochastic_monk »

askvictor wrote: post #79
brylie wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

France and Germany are looking pretty good these days.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#92

Post by doomlaser »

godelmachine wrote: post #51
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…

Are barometric sensors commonplace in smartphones?

That's the component that Apple replaced the headphone jack with, apparently.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#93

Post by onetimemanytime »

gcb0 wrote: post #87
onetimemanytime wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Is it not assumed/expected that if you're using android then google has access to all your phone's data/sensors? Yeah but that doesn't mean that they should snap a photo or turn on the mic in my bedroom. The point is that there are limits. Legal and ethical.

either they own the data or they don't. you can't go about making extremely granular arbitrary clauses.

If it's a yes or no /all or none, then they do not own it. They can't.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#94

Post by exodust »

cma wrote: post #32
exodust wrote: post #29

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 inv…

I'm pretty sure they are confusing things. When you turn on airplane mode and turn off GPS, Google will log all the wifi access points you come across (which only requires listening on the radio, not sending), and when you turn Airplane mode back off, it will upload that data to Google who can then go back and retroactively track your location based on their access point location database.

You're presenting a hypothetical as fact. The article doesn't mention anything about logging wifi access points, that's just you throwing another theory into the mix.

When Google location services is switched off, and your account is set to not track you or record history, there is absolutely not a "gig" of "secret spying" going on in the background.

Nobody forces you to leave wi-fi and mobile data on by default and everything set to default. Don't want to be tracked by Google? Then open settings and switch things off, it's not hard.

Like I said, grain of salt for News Limited articles. They hate Google, as do Oracle. The Daily Tele can't even write an article title without errors... "research showing Google users Android", bunch of amateurs.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#95

Post by askvictor »

ehsankia wrote: post #82
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Right, I should've been clearer. There's no evidence provided to us public readers. To be throwing such a bold claim out there though is often intentionally reckless. They are either baiting views or trying to chip at Google's image. Until we get the specifics, there is nothing here to discuss really.

Given that it's Oracle 'providing' the story, and News Ltd originally reporting it (both who have beef with Google), they are definitely trying to chip at Google's image.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#96

Post by fladrif »

askvictor wrote: post #74
anonytrary wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Quite often while talking about a restaurant, opening google maps will have it highlighted. I think this shows that not only does google not require a magic word to start recording, it actively processes the input it gets. I'm highly considering switching to lineage os.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#97

Post by bitmapbrother »

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.

Sometimes you need to take off the gloves and get your hands dirty. Google really needs to take Oracle to task for their public smear campaign.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#98

Post by z3t4 »

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.

Phones are so full of back-doors at every level that you wouln't notice if it's sending information. This is why we can't have open phone firmware. I don't think Google is secretly transmitting data, but it wouldn't surprise me if they do. Only way to stop it is to make it illegal to collect any kind of data without user consent. If you read the user agreement it probably already say what information is collected.

Re: Australian regulator investigates Google data harvesting from Android phones

#100

Post by _ptgt »

code_duck wrote: post #88
anonytrary wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They don’t have to send back all of the raw data, just analyses like ‘person X’s face detected, is in a noisy place’ or ‘conversation included these 5 keywords’. The processing and data transfer could also be deferred until the phone is idle or on WiFi.

It's just as farfetched to think they're doing constant image/voice recognition with your phone's processor without you knowing. Those models are big and take a lot of computing power
Post reply on HN