Android devices send their location data to Google regardless of their privacy settings
There are many reasons that can cause you to turn off location services on your device. Apart from the fact that they consume a large amount of your device's battery power, at the same time it is also somewhat scary to know that your every move is being tracked.
According to research by Quartz, Android devices collect addresses from the nearest cell towers and send location data to Google, even if location services have been turned off by the user. This has been happening since early 2017.
Google does collect information, as Google itself admitted, but it claims that this information was never stored on its servers.
But what is behind this Google practice?
A company spokesperson explained in an email that the collection of Cell ID codes helps improve the speed and performance of message delivery between Android devices.
"However, we never incorporated Cell ID codes into our system, so the data was immediately rejected while we told the service not to continually request Cell ID codes." the company's representative continues in his email.
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Even a device that has been factory reset and has location services turned off, or one that doesn't have a SIM card inside, is easy to be affected by Google's location data collection feature. Once a device is connected to a Wi-Fi network or a mobile network, it will send data to Google whenever it is in range of a tower.
So far, however, it is not clear how this information improves the performance and speed of message delivery between Android devices.
Where are we going?
By forcing Android devices to send it location data, Google is "insulting" users especially since it does not warn them. At the same time, it does not give them the option to "opt out" of this process.
If one looks at things from a security perspective, one could raise many questions about the issue of Google's "interception" of location data. A basic question could be: "what happens in case of theft of the device and how easily can the specific data be exposed?" Google of course made sure to answer this question, knowing the concern of users, saying that the data of mobile towers is well encrypted.
But that doesn't mean they can't be hacked by a hacker.
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It doesn't matter what version of Android you have. Quartz's report doesn't say how many devices are affected, but we can assume it's a fairly large number.
In addition, the company said that by the end of November this function will be disabled, while leaving open the possibility that it will be reopened in the future and always with the consent of the users.
