Google, here is all the data on our travels that collects with Android

The various web services offered by Google can be exploited to a large extent in a totally free, but in reality, at base of every feature, there is an exchange with company, which is somehow paid off.

The most skilled users know what we are talking about, that is private data. If Google is able to impress us every day with targeted advertising, it is because it knows our tastes, our browsing habits, and also knows the places we go. As? Simple, we’ll tell him.

And above all, we give company the power to dig into our habits, even most private ones, and there is no Incognito mode that it takes. Search, Gmail, Maps, and the same android, are ” services ” that we cannot do without, and are free. But how can company continue to offer it to us considering the enormous investments that are needed to keep them? Just with the same banners we talked about above. It’s a win-win situation, of victory for everyone.

Not everyone is aware of this feature, and few know exactly what Google collects and how it does it. To try to answer a few questions Quartz started a thorough investigation using three different Android smartphones: Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Moto Z Droid, trying to track all data stored on phone that are then transferred to Google’s servers, and sometimes used for profit.

Smartphones were not connected directly to a cellular data network, but on a portable network created ad-hoc capable of intercepting all data transmissions (received and sent) from smartphones. As a result, Quartz managed to compile a list of various types of private data transmitted by smartphones to the greedy servers of Google:

• A list of the types of journeys made, categorized according to means of transport (on foot, by bicycle, on tracks).
• Barometric pressure.
• When connected to a Wi-Fi network, or not.
• The MAC address of access point to which you are connecting.
• The MAC address, identifier, type, and two measures of force of sergnale of all Bluetooth beacons in vicinity.
• The charge level of smartphone, and whether it is in charge or not.
• Battery voltage.
• The GPS coordinates of smartphone and accuracy of this data.
• The altitude via GPS, and accuracy of data.

This is a very large number of information that many users are completely unaware, even if they agree to share the ” Location History “, which is history of travel. The report refers above all to this functionality to draw up its report, underlining how it is sufficient to activate it on one of apps offered by Google to give company our data and also offer it to all the other Big G services without directly having the right.

It must be said that Location History is an ” opt-in ” function, so it can be activated at the discretion of user, even if Quartz believes that Google does not explain precisely the implications deriving from activation of function. As a result, many users do not know how it works, nor the repercussions that option can have for their privacy. But there are also considerable advantages in offering your data to Google.

The company uses them, mainly to improve the user experience with various services offered: in addition to the most effective, banners can provide traffic forecasts in the routes faced every day, provide information on places frequented, advice based on places previously visited, and also find a lost smartphone. All data saved on Location History can also be deleted by user at any time, or edited as desired.

The feature can be deactivated altogether, but it is a choice of user who can decide whether to maintain his privacy or have valid suggestions at any time. The important thing is, as usual, to know what you are doing when you check smartphone.