Google Collects Android Users' Locations Even When Location Services Are Disabled (qz.com)

Google has been collecting Android phones' locations even when location services are turned off, and even when there is no carrier SIM card installed on the device, an investigation has found. Keith Collins, reporting for Quartz: Since the beginning of 2017, Android phones have been collecting the addresses of nearby cellular towers -- even when location services are disabled -- and sending that data back to Google. The result is that Google, the unit of Alphabet behind Android, has access to data about individuals' locations and their movements that go far beyond a reasonable consumer expectation of privacy. Quartz observed the data collection occur and contacted Google, which confirmed the practice. The cell tower addresses have been included in information sent to the system Google uses to manage push notifications and messages on Android phones for the past 11 months, according to a Google spokesperson. They were never used or stored, the spokesperson said, and the company is now taking steps to end the practice after being contacted by Quartz. By the end of November, the company said, Android phones will no longer send cell-tower location data to Google, at least as part of this particular service, which consumers cannot disable.

Comments

Uhhhh

[sunami88]

Not that it makes it OK (at all), but raise your hand if you're surprised. No one? Yup, pretty much. Do No Evil went out the window a long time ago. Google is creepy.

Re:Uhhhh

[Verdatum]

I mean, it all depends on your individual needs. As an end user, if you can afford it, then, sure, Apple tends to make good stuff; go for it. Where Google and Linux and other FOSS projects shine is when you're more than just an end user, and you want to get something novel done. When you need a server farm, you get a product running something like Linux. When your application needs to hook into vast information resources, you go to Google's APIs and tools. Like Google or not, they still undeniably have a ton of information, and they have lots of talented developers working on lots of useful tools related to computing things.

Re:Airplane mode

[Anonymous Coward]

You must have no friends or family who you want to reply to when they send you a message

Re:Airplane mode

[Anonymous Coward]

So you have a phone where you can't receive calls for 90% of the day. Congratulations.

No more smartphones?

[DontBeAMoran]

Google can't be trusted and will violate your privacy. They only stop doing it when they get caught, like in this instance.

Apple is releasing overpriced defective hardware because they can't be bothered to spend their pile of cash on QA and they are actively removing features we need and replacing them with new and unreliable ones that we never asked for in the first place.

As far as I know, Microsoft are out of the smartphone race. Not that I'd trust them any more than the other two, given their history.

So what? We all go back to dumb flip phones and pretend the whole thing never happened?

Re:No more smartphones?

[DontBeAMoran]

They dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack for no good reason. You can have both a 3.5mm jack and bluetooth/whatever.
They replaced TouchID with a flawed FaceID.
They switch from LCD to flawed OLED.
They keep making phones with glass backs, prone to breaking.
They release iOS without enough testing.
They release iOS on older phones with a CPU/RAM not up to the task, with no way to revert back to the older iOS version to make it usable again.

Do I really need to go on?

Re:Airplane mode

[El Cubano]

So you have a phone where you can't receive calls for 90% of the day. Congratulations.

Actually, he has a PDA (that also plays music, takes pictures, lets you read books/magazines, etc.) that can receive calls 10% of the day. Think about how anybody who works in a white collar profession uses their phone. I bet 90% PDA (that also plays music, takes pictures, lets you read books/magazines, etc.) with 10% phone split pretty accurately describes how most of them use their devices. It is pretty close for me.

Of course some people are tethered to their phone for voice/text connectivity, but there are plenty of folks who view their device as a tool, not a slave master.