Google is in the business of data. They make money selling advertisements and usage metrics to businesses. That’s why Google products and services are free or inexpensive. The service itself isn’t the product Google’s making money on, you are. It’s why, even after you ask Google to stop tracking your location information, they continue to do so. You are Google’s product, you are its money maker.
Google does two forms of data collection. There’s the passive collection, which is done by Android and the Chrome web browser. This can periodically collect information for Google to compile. This is what Location History does. Then there’s active data collection. This is event-driven, like performing a Google search or looking up a location in Google Maps. This is what Application Activity does. Google requires you at least enable the latter to use most of their services to their full extent. Google does twice as much passive tracking as active tracking.
Apple, on the other hand, sells products to consumers. Customer happiness keeps them coming back. Apple collects anonymized data, less interested in you as an individual and more interested in improving their products for the way their customers use them.
That difference makes for a tenfold increase in data collection on Android devices compared to Apple devices, and a complete lack of privacy on the Android side. If you’re using Android, Google is frequently collecting information about you, what you’re doing, where you are, and who you know.
The Paper
Douglas C. Schmidt (no relation to Google’s Eric Schmidt) is a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University. His paper, “Google Data Collection,” goes into great detail about how Google gets your information, and the frequency in which they gather this data. It followed a new Android user with a new phone to see how much data Google collects on us. It reveals some shocking revelations.
An Android user will transmit two thirds of the data Google collects passively, without doing anything. In just a single day, with a new Google account, Google can discern your interests. Though obvious, it may be surprising to know that Google saves your credit card number used in app or device purchases to track non-Google purchases, and stores your complete browsing history and forms filled out in Chrome for the same reasons. Also, even if you’re using an iOS device with no Google apps, you’ll still transmit some data to Google through web browsing. Services like AdSense (the ads on many webpages, including this one) and Google’s AMP pages will collect browsing information for Google. This pales in comparison to the amount of information an Android device supplies, but is not insignificant tracking.
Google vs Apple
If Google is a stalker who wants to know every detail of your life, Apple is the kind but aware friend who only listens when you want them to. Yes, Apple collects user data, but they anonymize what they collect, and the data they collect is used solely to make their products better, never to be sold. Apple also gives you the opportunity to opt-out of this data collection when you’re setting up a new device, and will never collect data if you tell it not to.
When collecting data, Apple uses differential privacy. Basically put, it’s a clever data collection technique that anonymizes data without making it useless. This way Apple can figure out how people use their products, without snooping in on individuals. It then uses this to improve its keyboard, teach the dictionary new words, or figure out how people want Siri to work. Apple anonymizes this data before it ever leaves your device. This is also why most of Apple’s machine learning is done on device. Apple simply doesn’t want anything to do with your data.
I couldn’t not include this song.
Google takes the opposite approach. They gather all the data they can, ten times as much as Apple does on mobile platforms alone. This absolutely used to improve Google’s products. This, along with the fact that Google uses off-site machine learning with TensorFlow, is part of the reason that Google Assistant is 10 times more useful than Siri. Google’s data collection is why Google News story suggestions are better than those from Apple News. However, that data is also used to identify you personally. It’s then sold to advertisers who want to reach you personally. It’s an incredible invasion of privacy. As a software engineer, I can’t help but admire the sheer potential of this, and Google’s data set is enviable. However, ethically speaking, it’s just not right.
A Hopeless Endeavor
Finally, safe from Google.
If you’re concerned about privacy, Google is not for you. Their profits depend on violating your privacy, and any options to control what Google has access to is but an illusion. Whether you use Google or not, Google has information on you. They can build models based on your behavior and predict your interests, whereabouts, friend groups, and spending habits. Using an iOS device, and shunning Google services can reduce your data exposure, but nothing short of living off the grid can protect you from it. Therefore, you’re given a choice. Accept that, today, one has no real right to privacy and Google (and its employees and advertising customers) can know everything about you or target you. Or, you can try to limit your exposure as much as possible by staying away from data hogs like Google and by using products from Apple or Microsoft instead.
Sources:
- Apple, Differential Privacy
- Roger Fingas, AppleInsider
- Tim Hardwick, MacRumors
- Jerry Hildenbrand, Android Central
- Professor Douglas C. Schmidt, Vanderbilt University, via Digital Content Next
- Liam Tung, Zdnet