Android users: Google is collecting your location data...

Android users: Google is collecting your location data even if location services are off
As long as you're accessing the internet on an Android device, Google can figure out where you are, a new Quartz investigation found.
By Olivia Krauth | November 21, 2017, 7:07 AM PST
https://www.techrepublic.com/articl...ation-data-even-if-location-services-are-off/

"Android phones are collecting users' location information, even when location services are disabled, according to an investigation by Quartz.

Android devices can gather location data and send it to Google even when location services are disabled and the phone has been reset to factory condition and apps, Quartz found. All the device needs to grab a user's location is a cellular data or Wi-Fi connection, the investigation found.

Android devices have been sending location information about nearby cell towers to Google since the beginning of 2017, Quartz said, with Google getting pinged every time a user entered the range of a new tower. Even if the user actively turned off location services, Google can still access their location and movements without their knowledge. Google confirmed the practice to Quartz.

While never storing the location information, Google used the data to manage push notifications and improve message delivery, a Google spokesperson told Quartz.

Google is now working to end the practice by the end of November after being contacted by Quartz.

The findings breach a "reasonable consumer expectation of privacy," Keith Collins, the author of the Quartz story, said. Using multiple cell towers can determine a user's location from a quarter-mile radius to a more exact spot, depending on how close the cell towers are together.

The findings may be an issue for those who don't want to be tracked and have taken precautions to make sure their location was secret. Google can still collect location data even if a SIM card isn't installed in the phone, and there is no known way to opt out of the collection."

 

I thought this was well known and documented? Hence why I turn off location until I really need it (GPS, checking into a restaurant in Swarm). I assume it's alot more work for Google to figure out your location with GPS off?

 

The news is old indeed. I personally use LineageOS (and CyagenonMod before that) without Google Services at all, for this very reason. This limits my smartphone selection noticeably, though - and I'm used to getting a new one every year. \=

 

OLD NEWS???? Whaaat???

Happy Thanksgiving!! Here's your free Turkey!!

Did people stop being born? Is everyone on the distribution list for common sense? What is up with Google trying to tell us they "just started doing this in 2017"?? And, Google is going to "stop doing this" in "end of November 2017"??

No!! There are certainly people that haven't heard of this, and this BS about it "just starting in 2017", is also BS, or didn't you guys read the article to see that?

Yes, it's older news than even smartphones... think about that for a minute... it's older than SMARTPHONES!!

Triangulating your location via cell towers "pings" was part of the orginal software in the *original* cell phone test sites, and it's still in there to this day!!!!

That's how old it is, as old as Cellular communications itself. It's actually even older than that, predating GPS of course, since we are talking pinging your proximity to cell towers and Wifi hotspots.

So, what's up with this article?

It tries to tell us both that it's just started happening, and that it's being turned "off" by Google at the end of November 2017!

Who do they think they are fooling??

That's why I posted it...hmmm, he had a reason? Wow, who'd a thought??!!

Fun stuff, Google and that publication trying to tell us "everything's ok"!!?

Oh yeah, don't forget that Google built a database of Wifi SSID's IP's and physical locations of every Wifi network when driving around mapping Google Maps and Streets, and don't you remember that Google promised they'd delete all the data they collected?, really man we are gonna delete it!!, we promise!!

Google didn't delete it, and still collects that data to this day.

 

No, that was the subject of the article, the cell tower info, along with latency and signal strength, including same for Wifi connection information, is what Google uses in addition to GPS info to more accurately get your *precise* location.

When GPS is turned off the rest of the data is / was / will be collected.

Google, through this "investigative" sham is trying to say they only started doing "this" in 2017, and now that they have been "caught" are planning on turning it off at the end of November 2017.

All BS. It's data that has been collected from before Google got "caught" logging Wifi SSID IP and precise location information for Wifi networks via Google Street Maps "drive by's".

Just more disinformation.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

 

Well, I'm keeping my Blackberry Q10 forever...
I'm rather concerned about the recent news that OnePlus collects some of the user data (and not all anonymously), since I'm currently eye-balling 5t. But then again, Google pretty much does the same, so I'm not even surprised OnePlus did it...

The headline says that tracking works even when GPS is off.

 

OnePlus allows you to turn off all data collection in the advanced settings. Whether or not it actually turns it off is eh.

Also yes I know the article said it tracks you even if GPS is off, but again I'm (assuming) it's more much difficult than actually providing the exact GPS location 24/7, whereas without GPS it's using wifi, and other means to do so.

 

How much better is GPS over Wi-Fi positioning? Yelp knows
https://gigaom.com/2012/08/17/how-much-better-is-gps-over-wi-fi-positioning-yelp-knows/

It's interesting to note that when Wifi hotspots are identified and their GPS location is logged with the SSID IP and signal strength, we know that Wifi signals don't go very far, and if there are 30 Wifi signals visible, with their GPS locations known, along with signal strength, one would think a very accurate map of just where that person is within the Wifi mesh would be possible.

I don't think Yelp's experience is the "best possible", but along with Cellular Triangulation, and additionally being able to correlate GPS data for the phones still on and with GPS enabled, around the user that doesn't have GPS on, I think the combination of data collected outside of GPS for the "node of interest", is more than enough to accurately locate you - you are the "node of interest"

Track Your Location Without Using GPS (using LAC and CID)
http://www.instructables.com/id/Track-your-location-without-using-GPS-using-LAC-a/

Public Mobile Cells Position Database. Ge0-Location API
https://www.mylnikov.org/archives/1059

Mobile phone tracking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

IIn Google's case I would hope that with a fat database of all the correlating information and some modeling software for spatial placement, far in advance of the simple tools posted above, and far in advance of Yelp's data and methods, GPS data would be unnecessary to track someone with their GPS turned off.

And, taking into account the long saved history tracking said devices with and without GPS enabled, considering our movement patterns are repetitive, creatures of habit go to the same watering holes, taking the same route(s), at the same time of day, and influenced to go to those locations via Google advertising - Free Pizza! - it's a good chance you'll go there, the cumulative effect would enhance the estimations given precise GPS coordinates of destinations.