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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

#111

Post by labawi »

crazygringo wrote: post #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…

> As for sending telemetry, it's $1/month in data assuming you never use Wi-Fi.

How much is it when you need to use mobile internet (email, messages, whatever) while roaming at 1+$/MB? I currently need to use roaming for work purposes at 200€/GB - luckily no android, so should be affodable.

While I'm not saying the prices are appropriate, they are there and you can chat, email etc at an affordable price.

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

#112

Post by qz2 »

luord wrote: post #93

Between this and Jeffrey Paul's article shared yesterday about Big Sur and Apple Silicon[1], it's becoming increasingly tempting to throw my phone away and keep using only Linux with no applications primarily developed by these giants (i.e. no Chromium, etc). Supporting initiatives like the Librem phone is also moving up in my list of priorities, once I get enough money to spare at least. [1]: https://news.ycombinato…

I’m working on the same thing and the phone at the moment. I doubt I’ll be able to go cold turkey so I’m blowing one app away every two weeks until I don’t need it any more. It’s not as hard as it felt like it was going to be.

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

#113

Post by intricatedetail »

This should be illegal and Google should be forced to split into small independent companies. Nobody can compete with them so they have unfair advantage. They need to abide by the rules any small business have to follow and pay the right tax. If they managed to amass so much wealth by gaming the system it should be confiscated.

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

#114

Post by Silhouette »

deeter72 wrote: post #98
luord wrote: post #93

Between this and Jeffrey Paul's article shared yesterday about Big Sur and Apple Silicon[1], it's becoming increasingly tempting to throw my phone away and keep using only Linux with no applications primarily developed by these giants (i.e. no Chromium, etc). Supporting initiatives like the Librem phone is also moving up in my list of priorities, once I get enough money to spare at least. [1]: https://news.ycombinato…

I personally feel like, Apple is the best choice for the time being until actual daily usable Linux high end phones are a reality. Apple although has highly monopolistic practices are privacy oriented and are interested on just selling the physical device.

The trouble with Apple's mobile devices is almost the opposite to Android ones: your data is heavily restricted to the Apple ecosystem (unless you're willing to give up a lot of that privacy) so even you may have difficulty transferring it to other equipment or services you choose to use. The trend may be further in that direction, too, if reports of future portless devices that can only communicate wirelessly turn out to be accurate.

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

#115

Post by chrisseaton »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #108
chrisseaton wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Is that relevant? Their data is often cheaper than ours!

Which 'ours' ? Cheaper compared to the income & cost of life ? With the median world income being $30/month, I doubt so !

> With the median world income being $30/month, I doubt so !

First of all, this isn't even true - it's around $240/month.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/166211/worldwide-median-househo...

Second, people living in those countries aren't buying US data plans at US prices are they? You don't live in the Congo but shop for your data plan at a California strip-mall, do you?

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

#116

Post by lern_too_spel »

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…

The device knows when it is on a metered connection and should send logs (which is a preference the user can decline during device setup) only when it is on a metered connection. If it doesn't, that's a bug. Google is pretty unresponsive to bugs filed via the external Android bug reporting tool, so if this is a bug, I hope they pay dearly and pay more attention.

It's possible that the device they ran the test on had an unlimited data plan, in which case, this might not be a bug, and the judge will throw out the case.

https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/core/net/Co...

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

#117

Post by intricatedetail »

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…

Google by being present and controlling every part of ecosystem has unfair advantage in the market. They need to be split and start paying the right tax. Any wealth achieved by creative accounting should be confiscated. Any data collected without legitimate business need should be ordered to be deleted. If company has a search engine, it should be illegal to use that data to feed ad serving business. If company produces phone hardware it should be illegal to sell it with closed operating system. Basically any kind of monopoly or cartel needs to be prevented. Companies should be banned from having offshore structures without legitimate business need.

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

#118

Post by lern_too_spel »

sundvor wrote: post #100

The real kicker for me was Google charging a background preload as a view as such, even though the user may never actually see the ad. Amazing.

That is speculation in the article and seems extremely unlikely.

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

#119

Post by megous »

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?

Wow, that would increase my monthly bill for a phone 5x if I was still not using a dumb phone.

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

#120

Post by generalizations »

qz2 wrote: post #112
luord wrote: post #93

Between this and Jeffrey Paul's article shared yesterday about Big Sur and Apple Silicon[1], it's becoming increasingly tempting to throw my phone away and keep using only Linux with no applications primarily developed by these giants (i.e. no Chromium, etc). Supporting initiatives like the Librem phone is also moving up in my list of priorities, once I get enough money to spare at least. [1]: https://news.ycombinato…

I’m working on the same thing and the phone at the moment. I doubt I’ll be able to go cold turkey so I’m blowing one app away every two weeks until I don’t need it any more. It’s not as hard as it felt like it was going to be.

Maps with live traffic is going to be the tough one; at least it is for me.
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