Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin Douglas Rice (Douglas J Leith) Professor published a report last week, said that both iOS or Android devices, will be around the clock from time to time back to the user information to its servers, even if users choose not to log in and refuse to share data. And the amount of data collected by Android devices is as much as 20 times that of iOS devices.
The survey was conducted on a Pixel 2 with Android 10 and an iPhone 8 with iOS 13.6.1. Both phones were connected to a computer (computer) that served as a Wi-Fi access point (Access Point). On this computer, Professor Rice ran the mitmproxy program, which acts as a so-called “man-in-the-middle” and intercepts all encrypted traffic between the mobile devices and Apple and Google servers.
Rice measured the data traffic originating from iOS and Android devices to Apple and Google’s servers at different stages of the phone’s operation.
When first activated.
When the SIM card is removed or inserted.
When the device is idle.
In the Settings app.
When location services are turned on and off.
When logging into Apple’s App Store or Google Play for Android devices.
The results showed that both phones each sent a staggering amount of data to Apple and Google – everything from IMEI codes and phone numbers to location and telemetry data.
“Both iOS and Google Android send back telemetry data, even though the user explicitly chooses not to accept this (option),” says Professor Rice. In addition, “this data is sent even if the user is not logged in (in fact, even if they are never logged in).”
He found that Apple tends to collect more kinds of information data from iOS devices, but it is Google that collects a significantly larger amount of data from phones. Within the first 10 minutes of launch, Pixel phones sent about 1MB of data to Google, while iPhones sent about 42KB of data to Apple.
When the phones were idle, both phones sent about once every 4.5 minutes.
Professor Rice said, “When the phone is idle, the Pixel phone sends about 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours, while the iPhone sends 52KB of data to Apple, meaning Google collects about 20 times more phone data than Apple.”
It’s not just about sending data to Apple or Google. Pre-installed apps or services can also establish a network connection, even if they are not yet open or used. iOS automatically collects data from Siri, Safari and iCloud to send to Apple, while Android collects data from Chrome, YouTube, Google Docs, Safetyhub, Google Messenger, Device Clock and Google search bar (Search Bar) and other applications to collect data.
Google questioned the findings, saying they were based on a flawed approach to measuring the data collected by each operating system. The company also argued that data collection is a core function of any Internet-connected device.
In a statement to Ars Technica, Google said, “We found flaws in the researcher’s approach to measuring data volume and disagree with the paper’s assertion that Android devices share 20 times more data than iPhones. Based on our research, these findings differ by an order of magnitude and we shared our concerns about the methodology with the researcher prior to the paper’s publication.”
“This study outlines to a large extent how smartphones work. Modern cars regularly send essential data to automakers about car components, their safety status and service schedules, and cell phones work in a very similar way. The report details this communication, and these communications help ensure that iOS or Android software is up to date, that services are working as expected, and that the phone is operating safely and efficiently.”
An Apple spokesperson responded, “The report confuses a number of items related to different services and misunderstands how personal location data is protected.” Apple claims they are well aware of what it collects and that the technology the company uses prevents it from using location services to track users.
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