So, turns out Android tracks your location too.
Whilst the web is still largely reeling from the discovery that Apple devices track the locations of its users in an easily accessible file containing geodata, turns out that Google Android devices are doing something very similar – albeit, without nearly as much fuss.
Within a day of the Apple discovery, developer Magnus Eriksson created a Python script with source code readily available to others via Github, to extract the same sort of information for Android, highlighting that the majority of smartphone devices with location awareness and tracking capabilities are vulnerable to the same privacy issues.
Like the iPhone before it, the Android file containing the information isn’t encrypted giving rise to security fears over why such sensitive user data is being recorded. According to Apple, the location database is designed to speed up the location processes, with cached data being delivered much faster to users – giving a better user experience. There is however, no reason that historic data needs to be kept on the phone, and doing so poses a security risk if your phone was to be stolen or hacked.
The discovery that Google use a similar file would suggest some truth to that, but unlike the Apple device, data is only pruned when new info is added. IF and only if, there is limited movement of the Android device in question, this could provide more useful location data. Historic data is available on the Apple device to plot your entire movement, and a number of applications utilising that file to provide a visual representation of that are out there. (Hat tip – Phil)
It’s not the first time that Google have been exposed tracking location data that they really shouldn’t, German authorities pulled them on additional information that they were ‘accidently’ tracking when collating data for Google Street view. Given the country is considered the birthplace of data privacy with its Hesse Data Protection Act of 1970, it’s no surprise to see that Apple are going to be taken to task on this discovery with the iPhone as well. For now, quietly Google appear to be slipping under the radar.
