Thousands of Android apps track everything you do

[Common]

Thousands of Android apps track everything you do — and you can’t stop it

You can all stop worrying about your privacy, you have none.

New research out of the International Computer Science Institute in California has turned up a worrisome finding: About 17,000 Android apps have apparently been not only tracking your activity over the long-term (even in instances where users make it clear they don’t want that), but they’ve also been creating a permanent record on your device of every single thing you do, which a CNET report on Thursday notes in most cases is a violation of Google’s policy on collecting data that can be used to target advertising to users.

According to that report, the Android apps in question track you by connecting your so-called Advertising ID to other identifying information from your own device that there is no way to change or limit. Google’s recommended best practices for app developers include only using that Advertising ID, which is a unique number used to personalize ads to a user, but this new research, according to the story, shows that “less than a third of the apps that collect identifiers take only the Advertising ID.” In other words, the rest are using all kinds of unique identifying information that can tie your device to you.


In a blog post about the research published on Thursday, lead researcher Serge Egelman explains how his team found apps sending information that could identify users on to ad services.



It has been 5 months since we submitted that report, and we have not received anything from Google about whether they plan to address this pervasive problem. In the interim, more apps now appear to be violating Google’s policy. The problem with all of this is that Google is providing users with privacy controls … but those privacy controls don’t actually do anything because they only control the ad ID, and we’ve shown that in the vast majority of cases, other persistent identifiers are being collected by apps in addition to the ad ID.


https://nypost.com/2019/02/15/thousa...-cant-stop-it/

[donttread]

Thousands of Android apps track everything you do — and you can’t stop it

You can all stop worrying about your privacy, you have none.

New research out of the International Computer Science Institute in California has turned up a worrisome finding: About 17,000 Android apps have apparently been not only tracking your activity over the long-term (even in instances where users make it clear they don’t want that), but they’ve also been creating a permanent record on your device of every single thing you do, which a CNET report on Thursday notes in most cases is a violation of Google’s policy on collecting data that can be used to target advertising to users.

According to that report, the Android apps in question track you by connecting your so-called Advertising ID to other identifying information from your own device that there is no way to change or limit. Google’s recommended best practices for app developers include only using that Advertising ID, which is a unique number used to personalize ads to a user, but this new research, according to the story, shows that “less than a third of the apps that collect identifiers take only the Advertising ID.” In other words, the rest are using all kinds of unique identifying information that can tie your device to you.


In a blog post about the research published on Thursday, lead researcher Serge Egelman explains how his team found apps sending information that could identify users on to ad services.



It has been 5 months since we submitted that report, and we have not received anything from Google about whether they plan to address this pervasive problem. In the interim, more apps now appear to be violating Google’s policy. The problem with all of this is that Google is providing users with privacy controls … but those privacy controls don’t actually do anything because they only control the ad ID, and we’ve shown that in the vast majority of cases, other persistent identifiers are being collected by apps in addition to the ad ID.


https://nypost.com/2019/02/15/thousa...-cant-stop-it/

Does anyone else ever search a bunch of stuff they have no real interest in or dial back bot call numbers in order to try to make Big Brother scratch his head? BTW. the phone company appeared to sell business phone numbers pretty much immediately over a decade ago. Land line business numbers.

[zachroidott]

Buy Apple.

[Peter1469]

Buy Apple.

Apple sucks. I am forced to use the iPhone for work. I hate it.

[zachroidott]

Apple sucks. I am forced to use the iPhone for work. I hate it.

That’s so awful for you.(sorry)

[Just AnotherPerson]

I can stop it, I don't use a cell phone. We are not just tracked through our phones but every single key you type on your keyboard is recorded and stored. This spying has been going on for a very long time now. Every site you have ever looked at, every search, it is all being stored. Any digital device the has recording capabilities is recording your every word. Your thoughts are being harvested. You are training the AI. Our information is digital gold. There is a reason that the mega corporations are storing this information it costs a huge amount of money to store it all. Our private lives are for sale and being sold to the highest bidder.

First we have the cell phone. It tracks every move, it records every word and your mind patterns. It is recording your thoughts. If you have devices in your home that have wifi like your appliances those are tracking everything as well, your TV, your computer. If you leave your home and go in public you are being recorded on cctv. This is all being stored.

Big AI is being worked on as we speak. They are already implementing the social credit score in China that is just the beginning. This is beyond big brother. When the computers are powerful enough this information will be crunched through the AI, and our freedoms as citizens will all but disappear. They are already using predictive crime in places using the AI. If we allow them to take this too far there will be no coming back.

[Peter1469]

I can stop it, I don't use a cell phone. We are not just tracked through our phones but every single key you type on your keyboard is recorded and stored. This spying has been going on for a very long time now. Every site you have ever looked at, every search, it is all being stored. Any digital device the has recording capabilities is recording your every word. Your thoughts are being harvested. You are training the AI. Our information is digital gold. There is a reason that the mega corporations are storing this information it costs a huge amount of money to store it all. Our private lives are for sale and being sold to the highest bidder.

First we have the cell phone. It tracks every move, it records every word and your mind patterns. It is recording your thoughts. If you have devices in your home that have wifi like your appliances those are tracking everything as well, your TV, your computer. If you leave your home and go in public you are being recorded on cctv. This is all being stored.

Big AI is being worked on as we speak. They are already implementing the social credit score in China that is just the beginning. This is beyond big brother. When the computers are powerful enough this information will be crunched through the AI, and our freedoms as citizens will all but disappear. They are already using predictive crime in places using the AI. If we allow them to take this too far there will be no coming back.

I avoided cell phones until around 2001 when I was an army prosecutor in Korea. I either got a cell phone, or had to be tied to a landline when I was on call. So I got a cell phone. Since then I moved up to the current smart phones. Although I do debate about going back to the old flip phone.