It’s as if it’s a cardinal sin to not include a reference to George Orwell’s "1984" in privacy-focused articles but here we are again talking about Big Brother in Big Tech.
This time, it’s not some unknown app from the Google Play Store that spied on people without the store owner’s knowledge; it's a really big deal.
According to pretty veritable research, ladies and gentlemen, Google has been keeping track of who you have been speaking to on the phone and monitoring your SMS messages all this time if you've been using an Android device – all without your immediate consent or an option to opt-out of the apparent espionage effort.
Douglas J. Leith, a professor at Trinity College Dublin, reveals in the research paper titled “What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?” that the company has been secretly collecting data from Android devices – but without the knowledge of the user and no option whatsoever to turn the “feature” off.
“We report on measurements of the data sent to Google by the Google Messages and Google Dialer apps on an Android handset,” Leith explained in the paper.
“We find that these apps tell Google when message/phone calls are made/received. The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message exchange.”
One of the most problematic aspects of Google’s surveillance is mentioned in the abstract of the research paper.
“The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two handsets engaged in a phone call.”
So, Google knows who your grandfather living in Ohio is, it also knows that somebody in California called him and for how long they spoke. It may possibly even know why.
“Phone numbers are also sent to Google. In addition, the timing and duration of other user interactions with the apps are sent to Google,” the paper notes.
“There is no opt-out from this data collection,” Leith adds in the article, alluding to the unwarranted harvesting of data being a conscious crime.
“The data is sent via two channels, (i) the Google Play Services Clearcut logger and (ii) Google/Firebase Analytics. This study is therefore one of the first to cast light on the actual telemetry data sent by Google Play Services, which to date has largely been opaque,” the paper also adds, confirming prejudices that the Android maker has never been genuine in showing its intentions or transparent in how it handled private data.
“We informed Google of our findings and delayed publication for several months to engage with them,” Leith added in the article.
The professor goes on to say that "on foot of this report," Google has said that it plans to make "multiple changes" to its Messages and Dialer apps.
Does this promise remind you of anything?
It does for me. It reminds me of the countless promises of privacy by yet another “life invader” (GTA V reference intended), Mark Zuckerberg.
With every privacy scandal to hit Facebook, Zuckerberg offered up yet another promise without making things right over the course of nearly 20 years.
The same goes for Google.
Countless antitrust cases and one mammoth-sized culprit: Alphabet, ahem, Google.
Will they make things right and let Android users breathe a sigh of relief, and for real this time?
I don’t think so, because Android is entrenched so deeply in our lives that there is nearly no escape.
Even if you are a diehard Apple fan, you probably have an Android device, too, be it an Android TV, smartwatch, car stereo, TV box or whatever it may be.
Nevertheless, unless Google takes feasible steps to battle Apple’s supremacy in the privacy-savvy market, its reputation will continue to be further tarnished – despite the fact that Android will continue to get more popular by the day thanks to the simple fact that Android devices are much more financially accessible compared to their Apple counterparts.
But is reputation or money more important to a company valued higher than 12 countries' gross domestic product (GDP) levels?
We will wait and see but, let’s hope Google ticks the right box.
Or at least, informs us this time and doesn't violate our sovereignty over our devices that we paid hard cash for.
