Apps & Software
Image Source: Motorola The amount of data Google tracks from your Android phone is staggering
January 24th, 2018 at 3:04 PM
It should go without saying that, if you like any of Google’s services, you’re expected to share your private data with Google. You get free access to neat things like Google Search, Gmail, Maps, and Android OS, and in return you let Google show you highly-tailored ads that are based on your incredibly complex Google profile. It’s a win-win situation if you will.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Google collects an incredible amount of data about you, especially from that device you use most, your Android phone. And it might all happen without your knowledge, a new report explains.
Using three distinct Android phones, namely the Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Moto Z Droid, Quartz tracked all the data that leaves your phone to reach Google’s servers.
The phones were not connected to a cellular network. Instead, they were hooked up to a portable Internet-connected Wi-Fi network able to eavesdrop on all the transmissions send and received by these phones.
Here’s the kind of data your Android device transmits to Google on a regular basis:
That’s very disturbing considering that most people are actually unaware of it all, even if they all agreed to share Location History with Google. Because it appears that location tracking is actually the culprit here.
As soon as you allow any Google-made app to record your location history — Google Maps is one likely candidate, but there are plenty of others — all of Google’s Android apps will then grab that location data, not just the app asking permission to track you.
Google did make Location History an opt-in program. But Quartz explains that the implications of enabling Location History in a Google app aren’t clear to the user.
“With your permission, Google uses your Location History to deliver better results and recommendations on Google products,” Google told Quartz. “For example, you can receive traffic predictions for your daily commute, view photos grouped by locations, see recommendations based on places you’ve visited, and even locate a missing phone. Location History is entirely opt-in, and you can always edit, delete, or turn it off at any time.”
You can turn off Location History if you care about your privacy more than anything else, but that means not being able to use some apps that require access to your location — read the full Quartz report at this link.
TRACK RECORD
If you’re using an Android phone, Google may be tracking every move you make
As a result, Google holds more extensive data on Android users than some ever realize. That data can be used by the company to sell targeted advertising. It can also be used to track into stores those consumers who saw ads on their phone or computer urging them to visit.
1 This also means governments and courts can request the detailed data on an individual’s whereabouts.
While you’ve probably never heard of it, “Location History” is a longtime Google product with origins in the now-defunct Google Latitude. (Launched in 2009, that app allowed users to constantly broadcast their location to friends.) Today, Location History is used to power features like traffic predictions and restaurant recommendations. While it is not enabled on an Android phone by default—or even suggested to be turned on when setting up a new phone—activating Location History is subtly baked into setup for apps like Google Maps, Photos, the Google Assistant, and the primary Google app. In testing multiple phones, Quartz found that none of those apps use the same language to describe what happens when Location History is enabled, and none explicitly indicate that activation will allow every Google app, not just the one seeking permission, to access Location History data.
Quartz was able to capture transmissions of Location History information on three phones from different manufacturers, running various recent versions of Android. To accomplish this, we created a portable internet-connected wifi network that could eavesdrop and forward all of the transmissions that the devices connected to it broadcast and received.
2 None of the devices had SIM cards inserted. We walked around urban areas; shopping centers; and into stores, restaurants, and bars. The rig recorded every relevant network request.
3 made by the Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8, and Moto Z Droid that we were carrying.
According to our analysis of the phones’ transmissions, this is just some of the information that gets periodically sent to Google’s servers when Location History is enabled.
- A list of types of movements that your phone thinks you could be doing, by likelihood. (e.g. walking: 51%, onBicycle: 4%, inRailVehicle: 3%)
- The barometric pressure
- Whether or not you’re connected to wifi
- The MAC address—which is a unique identifier—of the wifi access point you’re connected to
- The MAC address, signal strength, and frequency of every nearby wifi access point
- The MAC address, identifier, type, and two measures of signal strength of every nearby Bluetooth beacon
- The charge level of your phone battery and whether or not your phone is charging
- The voltage of your battery
- The GPS coordinates of your phone and the accuracy of those coordinates
- The GPS elevation and the accuracy of that.
“That goes beyond what you’d expect for Location History,” Bill Budington a security engineer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Quartz when these transmissions were described to him, “especially in terms of predicted activity.” The EFF is a nonprofit organization that advocates for digital civil liberties, freedom, and privacy, which both I and Google have made charitable contributions to in the past.
4Google, accurately, describes Location History as entirely opt-in. “With your permission, Google uses your Location History to deliver better results and recommendations on Google products,” a spokesman wrote to Quartz in an email. “For example, you can receive traffic predictions for your daily commute, view photos grouped by locations, see recommendations based on places you’ve visited, and even locate a missing phone. Location History is entirely opt-in, and you can always edit, delete, or turn it off at any time.”
When asked to opt in, however, the full implications of enabling Location History are rarely made clear. Here are some of the ways Google apps ask users to enable Location History.
Google Photos
Google Maps
Google App
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is of strategic importance to the company’s efforts to keep users in its ecosystem of devices, apps, and services rather than those of Apple, Amazon, or Microsoft. Most recently, all of these companies have been focused on in-home appliances that respond to voice and can assist with various routine tasks like playing music, calling a taxi, or ordering laundry detergent.
Your Location History
Android users can check some of the information Google has collected about them by looking at “Your timeline” in Google Maps. (Google’s information page on how to access it can be found here.) These instructions show how to turn off Location History entirely.
Read next: Google can still use Bluetooth to track your Android phone when Bluetooth is turned off
