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Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

theregister.com

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Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#61

Post by daniellarusso »

teekert wrote: post #44
Anarch157a wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wireguard. All traffic from my phone is routed thru a VPS hosted in Germany, where all traffic to 8.8.[84].[84] is blocked.

+1 for wireguard. I leave it on always. Only thing I have trouble with is Sonos, which does not even connect to the system even in my own network.

I believe the issue with Sonos and the VPN is making mDNS or multicast available across subnets.

I struggled with a similar issue with Spotify to play to networked devices from my device.

This may point you in the right direction...

https://en.community.sonos.com/advanced-setups-229000/yet-an...

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#63

Post by alextheparrot »

izacus wrote: post #15

> Under active use, Android devices transfer about 11.6MB of data to Google servers daily, or 350MB per month, it's claimed, which is about half the amount transferred by an iPhone. Interesting, so 350MB of data per month is abuse, iPhones 175MB per month isn't. I guess Google now has to half their data use for it to be at parity with Apple and we're all fine?

What they’re going to argue is that Google is using more than necessary when the phone isn’t actively being used. Maybe an amount is necessary, but they are comparing to Apple to provide a basis that Google’s amount is not wholly necessary. Under the claimed as similar static conditions, an iPhone uses an order of magnitude less than Google’s current amount. This provides the basis to say that 9/10th of Google’s amount may not be necessary and some lawyer is convinced he can argue that the terms don’t cover that usage by Google.

I assume that the under active use category is covered broadly by the terms of Google, Apple, and any other application you’re using. While that may be an actual problem, it also might not be a legal problem given how the contracts are defined today.

If you don’t like this, then you’ll need to advocate for actual laws. Otherwise, this is the best attack that can be waged against this type of behavior today and is why people appear to be “okay with” the current usage in the general case. You’re only going to see “not okay with” if a lawyer thinks they can actually win a case.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#65

Post by jhasse »

indymike wrote: post #30
geogra4 wrote: post #3

I wish Microsoft didn't kill windows mobile. The Android monopoly is terrible

Windows mobile wasn't going to change the world. That said, I'd love to see a real alternative to iOS and Android if for no reason than my phone is a very powerful, very real computer and I can't use it as such.

https://e.foundation

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#66

Post by scoot_718 »

foepys wrote: post #18
rainingcatndogs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if these mentioned apps comes with google's dns resolvers baked in, in that case routing through pihole doesn't help here.

Afaik, some apps like Netflix that rely on geo-blocking for their content licensing do it already and it's only a matter of time until they switch to DNS over HTTP so requests cannot be altered at all.

That's just going to break functionality on many networks.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#67

Post by blfr »

cstross wrote: post #52
dalbasal wrote: post #39

These bits of litigation are interesting, but my usual takeaway is a mild contempt for the whole thing. Whether it's something minor like this or a major antitrust cases (eg, the recent adwords EU case), what is and isn't legally actionable seems arbitrary from a non-legal perspective. Even legislation efforts like european "cookie laws" and such seem bumbling and naive. What's the legal fix to this, assuming google…

Whether or not google are "stealing" data allowance from customers, or acquiring this right voluntarily/contractually from customers is interesting in the abstract Specific example of harm: international roaming data fees are outrageous and even a small use of data can stack up. If I visit Canada using my UK mobile phone, I have to be sure to keep data roaming turned off because I get dinged for £6/Mb (about US $7.50…

The real problem in your example are absolutely abusive and exploitative roaming charges, not Android or search/advertising business model.

Should the phone sit quiet when you're not using it? Sure. Is £6/Mb even close to a reasonable rate? Not unless you're on Mars.

Re: Google sued: Idle Android eats mobile data to send telemetry and preload ads

#70

Post by peteradio »

dalbasal wrote: post #39

These bits of litigation are interesting, but my usual takeaway is a mild contempt for the whole thing. Whether it's something minor like this or a major antitrust cases (eg, the recent adwords EU case), what is and isn't legally actionable seems arbitrary from a non-legal perspective. Even legislation efforts like european "cookie laws" and such seem bumbling and naive. What's the legal fix to this, assuming google…

It should be illegal to allow a consumer to click "terms and conditions" have been read in a super-human period of time.
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