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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

#72
post #20
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?

Errr wouldn’t that be 700MB/month for an iPhone?

Hmm, I think it's a lapsus in the original text - the data clearly shows that iPhones transfer 50% LESS data than Androids.

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

#74
Per the link [1] the article refers to, if I understand correctly, Google isn't preloading ads.

Google is making it possible for applications that show ads to choose to preload them. And they're not preloaded hours/days in advance -- it's a UX pattern to load them a tap before.

So that part of the suit looks like it will fall apart. As for sending telemetry, it's $1/month in data assuming you never use Wi-Fi. Doesn't seem like a particularly unreasonable cost. Especially considering most people spend the majority of their time at work/home with Wi-Fi which means the real number is more probably more like $0.25/mo.

I think a reasonable person assumes any commercial OS is checking for push notifications, syncing info (like weather), communicating analytics, checking for updates, etc. in the background. The only question is whether it's unreasonably excessive, which in this case appears not to be. (Really the only main thing is that a device shouldn't download multi-gigabyte OS updates without asking first.)

[1] https://www.blog.google/products/admob/preloading-interstiti...

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

#75

Per the link [1] the article refers to, if I understand correctly, Google isn't preloading ads. Google is making it possible for applications that show ads to choose to preload them. And they're not preloaded hours/days in advance -- it's a UX pattern to load them a tap before. So that part of the suit looks like it will fall apart. As for sending telemetry, it's $1/month in data assuming you never use Wi-Fi. Doesn't…

I think a reasonable person has never wondered if their OS is doing something in the background, is shocked when I tell them about it, and then shrugs and goes back to using it because the alternative is to learn something new.

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

#76
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?

That’s not saying 175MB per month is ok, that could also be problematic. It’s saying 350MB per month is clearly excessive as demonstrated by a company using half that.

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

#77
post #76
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?

That’s not saying 175MB per month is ok, that could also be problematic. It’s saying 350MB per month is clearly excessive as demonstrated by a company using half that.

How do you know the extent of the capabilities?

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

#78
post #64
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Microsoft help here? Windows has bunch of telemetry too.

AFAIK Windows telemetry can be easily disabled.

What? It's the opposite of this, in Windows 10 telemetry can not be disabled at all. All you get is a choice between "Basic" / "Enhanced" / "Full (recommended)" modes.

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

#79

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…

The answer here has been obvious for many years. Clearly, there is a conflict of interest in having an organization interested in selling ads to also make one of the worlds most widely used operating systems. So we break them up. We regulate their conduct, we interrogate their business and ensure there is no apparent conflicts of interest going on. Mobile OS solutions LTD would develop Android OS, wouldn't unduly fav…

It doesn't really matter who's involved, the security model in android is extremely user hostile. Many organizations are given super user access on device and the end user isn't. Only one of these needs to be poorly behaved (not even selling ads) for the device to be full of unremovable malware.

There's definitely a social problem here, but I think for once people HN are underestimating the importance of a technical problem.

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

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You say this, but in 2020, Google is still working on adding features Windows Mobile had in 2014. As a former WinMo user, it's sad watching everyone else finally catching up.

Any examples?

I can think of one, but in the opposite way: how Google removed the Exchange integration service from Android.

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