Do Facebook, Microsoft, And Google Apps Secretly Collect Android Data?

What’s Being Claimed?

Smartphones that are powered by Android are pre-installed with Facebook, Google, and Microsoft apps.

• Due to this pre-installation, these apps are collecting the data of the users without offering an opt-out option.
• The claim has been made after a new study conducted by Trinity College Dublin.

What Has Been Revealed?

The data that is being collected by the apps include app screens that are viewed by the users, web activity, duration of the phone calls, and device identifiers like hardware serial numbers.

• Researchers of the university have also examined data that was sent by six variants of the Android operating software that have been developed by Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Realme, LineageOS, and e/OS.
• With the help of minimal configuration and when the handset is not in use, all the varients except e/OS transmit substantial amounts of information to the OS developer.
• Other than the developers, the information is also shared with third parties like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that have pre-installed their apps on Android smartphones.
• No feature like opt-out was available, all this was concluded after a study named ‘Android Mobile OS Snooping by Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, and handsets by Realme’.

How Is Data Shared?

Xiaomi Headsets

• They send the details of all the apps screens that are viewed by the users to Xiaomi, which also includes when and how long each app is being used.
• Other things include timings and duration of the phone calls.
• This sharing of data is similar to cookies whose task is to track the activities of the people as they move to various web pages.
• The data is also expected to go out to Singapore and Europe.

Huawei Handsets

• The swift keyboard on these handsets shares details of the usage of the apps to companies like Microsoft.
• This has been stated by a study, which includes when the user is writing a text, typing in the search bar, or searching for contacts.

Companies like Google, Xiaomi, Realme, and Google have a collection of device identifiers like hardware serial numbers and advertising identifiers.

• It also means that when a user resets an advertising identifier, the value of the new identifier can be linked back to the same device.
• It also undermines the user of the user-resettable setting, noted by the study.
• Researchers have also brought into notice that there may be an ecosystem where the data collected from a handset could be shared between several companies.

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