WTF? Android is using our bandwidth to report our location to google without asking?

[Kage87Z]

So, where does google get off doing this?

Apple, Google Collect User Data

Apple Inc.'s iPhones and Google Inc.'s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal?intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.

Google and Apple are gathering location information as part of their race to build massive databases capable of pinpointing people's locations via their cellphones. These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services?expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

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[Johnly]

So what's new? Kidding....I hear there is a program out to nix the tracking file on apple already. With google, at least you have to agree to be tracked.

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

I don't like it but I'm not surprised. These devices all have GPS chips in them, of course they are going to track our location. What bothers me more is that the information is unencrypted. Oh well. At least with an Android device you can turn GPS off and opt out of Latitude. iPhone users have no such option. Even if they turn GPS off they're phone still tracks them.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

What I love is the fact that the Feds are all "peeved" about it and requesting Apple give an answer, yet I just read an article saying they've known about it for a while and police have been using it to their advantage. Gotta love Big Brother.

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

What I love is the fact that the Feds are all "peeved" about it and requesting Apple give an answer, yet I just read an article saying they've known about it for a while and police have been using it to their advantage. Gotta love Big Brother.

I find it ironic that the company that made the "1984" commercial accusing IBM of being Big Brother has now become Big Brother themselves. Hopefully all the bad publicity will help put an end to cell phone tracking once and for all.

 

[ls377]

I love how everyone knows their phone can tell their location, and even use that feature quite regularly, and yet everyone freaks out when they find out their device could be used to track them. It's like stepping in front of a maniac with a gun, and fully expecting him to not pull the trigger. Welcome to the technological world. If you want to completely fall off the grid, I hear the Amish are pretty cool people

/rant

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Ha, I agree with that, though. Meh, I've never really cared about Big Brother. If I did, I probably would have never joined the Military.

 

[Irina Sandu]

It's not about what your phone can do, but what it does with that data. Yeah, all this new mobile capabilities are useful, but implementation needs to be done in a way that is respectful to the user. All the time.

 

[Chrisy]

So I'd like to know what they do with this information. Do they use it to sell us crap? Or are they planning a world takeover or what?

 

[ls377]

So I'd like to know what they do with this information. Do they use it to sell us crap? Or are they planning a world takeover or what?

Skynet. It's coming .

It's all about ads, at least to Google. Filtering ads based on location gives them a better chance of working, and therefore more ad money. From what I understand, the info never actually leaves Google, and there's no device identifying information (not sure how they pull that off).

 

[Chrisy]

I actually like that Google gives me ads based on what I Google. I find good deals on things I like that way.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Skynet. It's coming .

It's all about ads, at least to Google. Filtering ads based on location gives them a better chance of working, and therefore more ad money. From what I understand, the info never actually leaves Google, and there's no device identifying information (not sure how they pull that off).

That'd be my guess as well. I SUPPOSE Apple could make the same argument in terms of iAds, but Apple makes a very, VERY miniscule (if any) amount of their profits through iAds, and considering it looks like this is something that's been in effect before the creation of iAds, I sincerely doubt it.

 

[Chrisy]

Then why does Apple do it? Does it have to do with the Apple Army?

 

[Dark Wizard Matoya]

Then why does Apple do it? Does it have to do with the Apple Army?

That's a good question. The information supposedly just sits there on your computer and isn't sent to Apple or anyone else, which raises the question of why it's being collected to begin with if it isn't being sent to or used by anyone.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Then why does Apple do it? Does it have to do with the Apple Army?

Good question...we're supposedly going to hear an answer in a few weeks, as Congress has demanded Apple answer to that very question. Although I say supposedly because I'm sure we'll get some crap "answer" which has either little or nothing to do with the real reason, or that deflects responsibility away from Apple.

 

[coderpunk]

This is actually why I'm considering switching to Android before my iPhone contract is up. How much control do you have over what data is 'phoned home' with the various ROMs?

 

[EpicSkull Inked]

Trust no one.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[Verdes8891]

Even during the setup of the phone, it ASKS you to allow the phone to do such. Its part of the GEOLOC. And not only that, if you have GPS on your phone, (all sprint phones do), then they are already going to know. It is only transmitting your location and nothing else. Relax, it is not the end of the world.

If you are really worried about "big brother" knowing your location, then you are doing something that you shouldnt be doing from the begining.

 

[OHSteel]

Congress is done with Barry Bonds and now moving on to Apple.

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Even during the setup of the phone, it ASKS you to allow the phone to do such. Its part of the GEOLOC. And not only that, if you have GPS on your phone, (all sprint phones do), then they are already going to know. It is only transmitting your location and nothing else. Relax, it is not the end of the world.

If you are really worried about "big brother" knowing your location, then you are doing something that you shouldnt be doing from the begining.

That's not necessarily true. Although it doesn't bother me, it does bother a lot of other people and they have a right to be bothered. Everyone has a right to privacy, and just because the Government *can* do something doesn't mean they *should* be doing it.

There are things I do and places I go that are completely legal and within my constitutional standings that I don't necessarily want people I don't know to know about.