New study on Google's data collection patterns

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Danit Gal <gal.danit () gmail com>
> Date: August 27, 2018 at 12:06:53 AM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>
> Subject: New study on Google's data collection patterns
>
> (Dave, this is quite relevant to IP)
>
> https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/08/21/google-data-collection-research/
>
> The key findings include:
>
> A dormant, stationary Android phone (with the Chrome browser active in the background) communicated location 
> information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period, or at an average of 14 data communications per hour. In 
> fact, location information constituted 35 percent of all the data samples sent to Google.
> For comparison’s sake, a similar experiment found that on an iOS device with Safari but not Chrome, Google could not 
> collect any appreciable data unless a user was interacting with the device. Moreover, an idle Android phone running 
> the Chrome browser sends back to Google nearly fifty times as many data requests per hour as an idle iOS phone 
> running Safari.
> An idle Android device communicates with Google nearly 10 times more frequently as an Apple device communicates with 
> Apple servers. These results highlighted the fact that Android and Chrome platforms are critical vehicles for 
> Google’s data collection.  Again, these experiments were done on stationary phones with no user interactions. If you 
> actually use your phone the information collection increases with Google.
> Google has the ability to associate anonymous data collected through passive means with the personal information of 
> the user. Google makes this association largely through advertising technologies, many of which Google controls. 
> Advertising identifiers—which are purportedly “user anonymous” and collect activity data on apps and third-party 
> webpage visits—can get associated with a user’s real Google identity through passing of device-level identification 
> information to Google servers by an Android device.
> Likewise, the DoubleClick cookie ID—which tracks a user’s activity on the third-party webpages—is another purportedly 
> “user anonymous” identifier that Google can associate to a user’s Google account. It works when a user accesses a 
> Google application in the same browser in which a third-party webpage was accessed previously.
> A major part of Google’s data collection occurs while a user is not directly engaged with any of its products. The 
> magnitude of such collection is significant, especially on Android mobile devices, arguably the most popular personal 
> accessory now carried 24/7 by more than 2 billion people.



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