Google Starts Tracking Retail Store Visits On Android and iOS

recoiledsnake writes with news of Google tracking a bit more of your life. From the article: "Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit stores, according to agency executives briefed on the program by Google employees. Google then connects these store visits to Google searches conducted on smartphones. If someone conducts a Google mobile search for 'screwdrivers,' for instance, a local hardware store could bid to have its store listing served to that user. By pairing that person's location data with its database of store listings, Google can see if the person who saw that ad subsequently visited the store.It is easiest for Google to conduct this passive location tracking on Android users, since Google has embedded location tracking into the software. Once Android users opt in to location services, Google starts collecting their location data as continuously as technologically possible."

Comments

surprised, yet not surprised.

[noh8rz10]

and the noose tightens a little bit more...

Re:surprised, yet not surprised.

[srmalloy]

Yet another reason not to opt-in to data collection...

Re:surprised, yet not surprised.

[noh8rz10]

> i prefer to use a phone os from a company that doesn't sell my recorded locations to others.

And please, which company would that be?

casting a wide net, there are four major mobile phone OS's. Here's a link to news about one OS capturing and selling location information:

Google Starts Tracking Retail Store Visits On Android and iOS

do you have any links for iOS, blackberry, or windows phone?

Re:surprised, yet not surprised.

[noh8rz10]

ok, here's the deal. On android phones, the default browser and maps apps phone home all ur info. On iOS phones, the default browser and maps app do not phone home all ur info. This is the difference between android and iOS. agreed? now, which one sounds better to you?

Re:surprised, yet not surprised.

[BasilBrush]

Apple guidelines do not require apps to NOT phone home... in fact there was a big flap about that just recently... iOS apps tracking people in ways that they did not approve.

Wrong.

"4.1 Apps that do not notify and obtain user consent before collecting, transmitting, or using location data will be rejected"

Android app guidelines are actually stricter than Apple's. You have to explicitly consent to EVERY phone service that is accessed by an app: not just location but accelerometers, compass, notifications, wifi, phone data, etc.

a) It's a poorer system. It's pre-approval, on mass, which means the user doesn't know why an app needs access to resources before approving them. iOS seeks approval at the time of requiring the resource, enabling the user to know what the resource is needed for.

b) There is no such limitation on Google on Android, because Google don't have to do it from within an app, and therefore not within a sandbox.

Re:surprised, yet not surprised.

[Jane Q. Public]

"Recent? You are linking to one that's 18 months ago, and one that's 2 years ago. Both dealt with permanently soon after discovery."

Of course they were. Any company worth its salt deals with malware right away. That's no guarantee that there isn't more of the same still out there. Odds are overwhelming that there is.

To assert that "there is no malware" in iOS is just ridiculous. There isn't a sane security researcher on the planet who would agree with that. Yet AGAIN, just recently, somebody got a trojan through the app approval process. Big deal, you say? Well, it is in a way because it is the same same basic technique used by one of those guys you were talking about from two years ago.

I repeat: I like Apple products. But one thing I am not is a fanboi. I am realistic about capabilities of the products. And I do my research. Yes, iOS has some safeguards that Android does not. BUT... whether those minor differences really equal "security" is a matter for debate.

iOS is nice if you like handholding and don't want to bother to deal with security yourself. But I don't like handholding, I am a tinkerer, and I don't have any qualms about taking care of my own security.

Re:you can turn off tracking

[noh8rz10]

and google obliges!!

why would you think that they may any attention to your privacy settings? have you hired a team of lawyers to review their TOCs? they ignored my safari privacy settings.

And Google says "F*ck the NSA"?

[JoeyRox]

It occurs to me that Google isn't mad on principle that the NSA spies on Americans using Google's data centers but instead that they're mad the NSA is riding on Google's spying coattails. Nobody likes competition I guess.

Re:Will they honor

[Anonymous Coward]

Why?

Seriously, what did fucking people do before cell phones?

Did the human race die out because they couldn't place phone calls any and/or everywhere?
Fucking spoiled little babies and their phones...you deserve what you get for your weakness

Re:Thank god it's Google

[93 Escort Wagon]

I seem to remember that the "Do no evil" thing was coined by Marissa Meyer.

She's also the one who said there'd never, ever be ads on the Google.com main page - which is now happening.

I'm not a huge fan of hers, but it is interesting to note that some of these philosophical changes at Google coincided with her apparently being expelled from the inner circle at the company.

Be that as it may...

[Anonymous Coward]

...there is more money to be made in tracking people than there is in selling phones to people who don't want to be tracked, so expect all industry players to continue moving in this direction.