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>>My fear is that by writing blanket untrue statements like this, people that don't know better just read it as fact, and spread it. You are right! "people tha

by maram 7y ago

>>My fear is that by writing blanket untrue statements like this, people that don't know better just read it as fact, and spread it. You are right! "people that don't know better" should do their own research on whether Google Location services ask for their permission. Here are few links: "Google records your location even when you tell it not to" https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-location-tracking-android-iphone-mobile https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/13/google-lo... "Google Collected Data on Schoolchildren Without Permission" https://www.wired.com/2015/12/google-collected-data-on-schoolchildren-without-permission/ https://www.wired.com/2015/12/google-collected-data-on-schoo... "More than 1,000 Android apps harvest data even after you deny permissions" https://www.cnet.com/news/more-than-1000-android-apps-harvest-your-data-even-after-you-deny-permissions/ https://www.cnet.com/news/more-than-1000-android-apps-harves... "Thousands of Android apps can track your phone — even if you deny permissions" https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/8/20686514/android-covert-channel-permissions-data-collection-imei-ssid-location https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/8/20686514/android-covert-ch...

deadmutex 7y ago
IMO, the articles have a bunch of nuance, but the titles are a bit click-baity. E.g. from the last article "Thousands of Android apps can track your phone -- even if you deny permissions". If you just read the title, one could possibly conclude that an app can just use the location API to get location data it was denied. However, when you read the article, you end up scenarios like this: "The study also singles out photo app Shutterfly for sending actual GPS coordinates back to its servers without getting permission to track locations — by harvesting that data from your photos’ EXIF metadata — though the company denied that it gathers that data without permission in a statement to CNET." Which is much more nuanced. Some would even consider it as a bug since it is coming from a side-channel. Also the article mentions that a lot of these things are being fixed with newer versions of Android (Q in this case). However, by just quoting click-baity headlines, it gives the false impression that these products are purposely built to intrude on privacy.

by maram 7y ago

deadmutex 7y ago

IMO, the articles have a bunch of nuance, but the titles are a bit click-baity. E.g. from the last article "Thousands of Android apps can track your phone -- even if you deny permissions". If you just read the title, one could possibly conclude that an app can just use the location API to get location data it was denied. However, when you read the article, you end up scenarios like this: "The study also singles out photo app Shutterfly for sending actual GPS coordinates back to its servers without getting permission to track locations — by harvesting that data from your photos’ EXIF metadata — though the company denied that it gathers that data without permission in a statement to CNET." Which is much more nuanced. Some would even consider it as a bug since it is coming from a side-channel. Also the article mentions that a lot of these things are being fixed with newer versions of Android (Q in this case). However, by just quoting click-baity headlines, it gives the false impression that these products are purposely built to intrude on privacy.