Android Data Harvesting

Columbo

Columbo

Columbo

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Firstly this isn't a tinfoil hat thread just trying to have a reasonable debate!

Secondly I love Android, have pretty much used it from it's initial release and haven't touched another OS since.

Thirdly we all should know that our usage is being harvested and that a lot of the services we use daily would not even exist if some of this data was not collected and used to harness advertising and pay for free services.

However after reading the below article plus a few others I'm quite shocked how much information Google is being accused of stripping from phones. The article below mentions a gigabyte of information per month per handset yet I'm just not seeing that in my data transfer logs, I can pretty much account for the data my handset uses either via Wifi or 4G so is this being transmitted silently or is the article just blowing it out of proportion or am I being naive?

Just interested to know people thoughts and take on this.

Article Link
 
is there a definitive answer on it picking up words from the mic and targeting ads?

I myself had a conversation at the weekend about gardening strimmers (never googled it), and yet low and behold I started seeing ads for flymos!

I've read about this, even on here I think but always thought it was a coincidence until now.
 
Could this be certain manufacturers fiddling with Android? I'm fairly sure my Moto G isn't doing this.
 
Be interested to hear what the ACCC actually conclude.

But they can also send precise locations even if location services are turned off, and they do not have a Sim card or apps installed.
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How is data sending possible without a GSM connection?
 
Sp00n said:
How is data sending possible without a GSM connection?
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They store the data and then send it when you eventually do connect to the internet. The surprise in the statement that you quoted is that they still assess your location via WiFi hotspots and potentially triangulation with mobile towers when the setting has been disabled (I guess they could say that this setting just disables it for apps not for the device itself).
 
In general, you are touching upon the privacy issue that has been in the news recently, esp after the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook data harvesting issue that led Facebook's CEO to have to appear before the US Congress. So I was interested to see if there was any significant blow-back from Facebook users after this saga and the answer seems a definitive no. The EU introduction of GDPR is due to commence later this month.

I suggest that long ago users of Facebook, Google, Amazon and even Apple have accepted the trade off between free services (Google has 7 products with monthly active users exceeding 1 billion) and privacy data collection. I do not expect this to change, as evidenced by the reaction to the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica saga.

Heck, we are now opening up our homes to IOT devices like Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Homepod that are growing in popularity.
 
TheOracle said:
is there a definitive answer on it picking up words from the mic and targeting ads?

I myself had a conversation at the weekend about gardening strimmers (never googled it), and yet low and behold I started seeing ads for flymos!

I've read about this, even on here I think but always thought it was a coincidence until now.
Click to expand...

It's very weird, just this weekend I was having a conversation on the phone regarding wanting some noise cancelling headphones for when I fly with work.
I've never searched for them them online but yet just now while having my lunch this pops up.

uYuTexO.jpg.png
 
PiKe said:
Could this be certain manufacturers fiddling with Android? I'm fairly sure my Moto G isn't doing this.
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Well the article specifically talks about Google themselves so presume this is something that they think is baked into the OS or into Google's own handsets.
Like you I just don't see this in my data logs unless the phone is transmitting this stuff unseen, unlogged and secretly which would for sure raise some eyebrows I would have thought.
 
Columbo said:
It's very weird, just this weekend I was having a conversation on the phone regarding wanting some noise cancelling headphones for when I fly with work.
I've never searched for them them online but yet just now while having my lunch this pops up.

uYuTexO.jpg.png
Click to expand...

There's far too many accounts of this isn't there. I mean what are the chances of me seeing flymo ads the day after I spoke about it?
 
Interesting. I don't have a garden so have no need for lawnmowers, trimmers etc be they Flymo or any other brand. (on my android phone, will report if any Flymo ads appear anywhere!)
 
TheOracle said:
is there a definitive answer on it picking up words from the mic and targeting ads?

I myself had a conversation at the weekend about gardening strimmers (never googled it), and yet low and behold I started seeing ads for flymos!

I've read about this, even on here I think but always thought it was a coincidence until now.
Click to expand...

I've had some pretty suspect things happen and being reasonably switched on to technology, etc. I find it incredulous that it is coincidence where I've had ads on my PC on sites like Facebook showing things very specific to conversations (in person) I've had shortly before with family members - a lot of the time I've not had my phone on me personally but mine is fairly locked down anyhow, so I can only assume it was the other person's phone listening in and I've never searched for or purchased, etc. these things via my PC.

I can only assume as well they must spam these ads to all close connections to whatever user's phone that must have somehow picked up these keywords as otherwise I have no idea how they'd made the connection to me unless there was some pretty complex processing/data crunching of voice analysis going on.
 
Regarding the flymo etc. - isn't this more likely to be seasonal and demographic-dependent? Certain age, certain demographic info, certain location, perhaps previous searches on gardening stuff or household items etc.
 
hughtrimble said:
Regarding the flymo etc. - isn't this more likely to be seasonal and demographic-dependent? Certain age, certain demographic info, certain location, perhaps previous searches on gardening stuff or household items etc.
Click to expand...

Suppose that makes sense as well and for me as I'm into tech what I saw could be as simple as 'theres a good chance that this is what I'll be interested in'.

However it's hard to brush off when having talked about these things on the phone you see them in an ad almost immediately after.
 
Columbo said:
Suppose that makes sense as well and for me as I'm into tech what I saw could be as simple as 'theres a good chance that this is what I'll be interested in'.

However it's hard to brush off when having talked about these things on the phone you see them in an ad almost immediately after.
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I agree. I wouldn't be brushing it off if it had happened to me!

Have a look in your Google account for all the saved voice activation sounds it has; I only recently found this, and there are a lot of instances where it's just recorded silence. Have a look in there and see if it activated and heard something.
 
Columbo said:
Give someone a call about Flymos or "OK Google" them via your voice, be interesting to see what happens.
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Anyone who use Google's voice search or the voice-activated assistant, Google Now, have their searches stored so that more relevant ads are served and search features are steadily improved -- in the same way you'd expect from regular Google search.

This is how we obtain free services from Google. Our data helps pay for these services.
 
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