Google receives Android users’ locations even when location services are off

Google receives Android users’ locations even when location services are off

You might not like this if you are an Android user. According to a research conducted by the Quartz, the Google receives the location updates of the user even if the location services are turned off.

Since a few months ago in the early 2017, the Android has been collecting addresses of the neighboring cellular towers and sending this data to Google. The most annoying thing about it is that this is happening even when the user has disabled the location tracking.


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The research says that the Android device collects as much data as it can regarding the locations and sends all of them at once to Google once your mobile is connected to the internet. Quartz also states that almost all the latest smartphones are victims of this vulnerability.

A spokesperson from the Quartz said that the Cell tower addresses are being gathered by the same system which Google relies on to manage the messages and push notifications. Though this has been happening for the past 11 months, none of the data has been used or stored.

Thanks to the media coverage, the Mountain View heavyweight has promised to take the necessary measures to avoid this from happening in the future. And this vulnerability is expected to see its end very soon by the end of the November.

Google Spokesperson commented,

In January of this year, we began looking into using Cell ID codes as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery. However, we never incorporated Cell ID into our network sync system, so that data was immediately discarded, and we updated it to no longer request Cell ID.

Anyways, the Google speaks briefly that it collects the location data, but it does not say that this is how it also happens when the location services are disabled.

This is the second time that the search engine is being caught under the controversial circumstances for collecting the user data. A few weeks ago in October, several users on Reddit reported that the Android devices can track your physical activity even the when the device is offline.

However, share us your views on this issue in the comments section below.

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About the Author: Derin J Tom

A homosapien in the pursuit of lending this cosmic world a small contribution of my supersonic dumb thoughts through words.

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