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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.
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.
Sex. Drugs, and Unix.
so ditch google services and use microG. I also disable firebase services from any apps that try to use it. Firebase lets the developer set up phoning home from the app and other such nonsense.
https://microg.org/
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?
#DeleteFacebook
When I first started reading Slashdot about 20 years ago, I was impressed by the wonderfully liberal ideas that abound in the comments section of the site, for example,
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." (Benjamin Franklin)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (Evelyn Beatrice Hall)
They gave me character, and shaped my world view.
Fast forward 20 years, and I find this generation to be more than willing to give up their freedom for a little convenience, or to be with the trendy in Silicon Valley, or simply because they can't stand a certain politician.