How does Android tell Google where you are even if you turn off GPS on your phone?
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If you have an Android phone and you think that disabling the locator your location will be a private matter, you're wrong.
Most Android smartphones, if they are connected to the internet, collect data on where they are and send them to Google, even when the location services are turned off.
The economic information website Quartz reported that since the beginning of 2017, Android phones near the mobile phone relay antennas were collecting addresses and sharing those details with Google.
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A privacy advocate described the finding as "betrayal" to users.
Google told Quartz that it uses this information to send notifications and messages to Android phones but assured that the data was never stored
He also said that Android is working to stop the practice and that it would be solved by the end of November.
The problem affects Android phones with Google Play Services, the service to download applications, while running on the phone.
Google Play Services is required to access many of the applications of the search giant and is pre-installed on most Android smartphones.
Mobile phone. Author rights of the image GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Some Android phones sent location information even though their GPS function was disabled.
Quartz discovered that smartphones store the addresses of the masts that carry the telephone antennas (in an encrypted way to identify the antennas individually) and send them to Google.
And that data can be used to determine the position of the device.
The phones send that information even when the location services are disabled in the configuration menu of the device or do not have a SIM card.
And there is no option to deactivate it either.
"If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is vulnerable", the discovery that generates concern about Internet security
"Discarded"
Google said it had been compiling the tower addresses for 11 months "as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery."
"We never incorporated the phone identification into our network synchronization system, so the data was discarded immediately," he said in a statement.Internet privacy rights group Privacy International said the finding shows that people have "little control" over what smartphones do.
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"When we buy a smartphone, we do not expect it to betray us," said Millie Graham Wood, a lawyer with Privacy International.
"While Google says it will stop the practice, this raises the question of what else is doing without the user's knowledge and why."
Most Android smartphones, if they are connected to the internet, collect data on where they are and send them to Google, even when the location services are turned off.
The economic information website Quartz reported that since the beginning of 2017, Android phones near the mobile phone relay antennas were collecting addresses and sharing those details with Google.
How to improve the security of your router to navigate without problems online
A privacy advocate described the finding as "betrayal" to users.
Google told Quartz that it uses this information to send notifications and messages to Android phones but assured that the data was never stored
He also said that Android is working to stop the practice and that it would be solved by the end of November.
The problem affects Android phones with Google Play Services, the service to download applications, while running on the phone.
Google Play Services is required to access many of the applications of the search giant and is pre-installed on most Android smartphones.
Mobile phone. Author rights of the image GETTY IMAGES
Image caption
Some Android phones sent location information even though their GPS function was disabled.
Quartz discovered that smartphones store the addresses of the masts that carry the telephone antennas (in an encrypted way to identify the antennas individually) and send them to Google.
And that data can be used to determine the position of the device.
The phones send that information even when the location services are disabled in the configuration menu of the device or do not have a SIM card.
And there is no option to deactivate it either.
"If your device supports Wi-Fi, it is vulnerable", the discovery that generates concern about Internet security
"Discarded"
Google said it had been compiling the tower addresses for 11 months "as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery."
"We never incorporated the phone identification into our network synchronization system, so the data was discarded immediately," he said in a statement.Internet privacy rights group Privacy International said the finding shows that people have "little control" over what smartphones do.
Why "porn browsing" or "incognito" on the internet is not as private as you think
"When we buy a smartphone, we do not expect it to betray us," said Millie Graham Wood, a lawyer with Privacy International.
"While Google says it will stop the practice, this raises the question of what else is doing without the user's knowledge and why."
