Security News > 2021 > March > Apple, Google Both Track Mobile Telemetry Data, Despite Users Opting Out

Mobile device-tracking by Apple and Google take center stage in a report revealing that, despite both allowing users to opt out of sharing telemetry data - they do anyway.

The research, entitled Mobile Handset Privacy: Measuring The Data iOS and Android Send to Apple And Google, also found that Google collects up to 20 times more data from its Android Pixel users compared to the amount of data that Apple collects from iOS users.

"During the first 10 minutes of startup, the Pixel handset sends around 1MB of data to Google, compared with the iPhone sending around 42KB of data to Apple. When the handsets are sitting idle, the Pixel sends roughly 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours, compared with the iPhone sending 52KB to Apple - i.e., Google collects around 20 times more handset data than Apple."

"In particular, on iOS these include Siri, Safari and iCloud; and on Google Android these include the YouTube app, Chrome, Google Docs, Safetyhub, Google Messaging, the Clock and the Google SearchBar," he said.

One is that Google and Apple can use data to identify a user and track purchases, Leith said.

While he said there are no workaround options to prevent an iPhone from sharing data with Apple, there are steps Pixel users can take to prevent the "Vast majority" of the data sharing with Google.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/google-apple-track-mobile-opting-out/165147/