“Less obvious ways for Google to collect data are “passive” means, whereby an application is instrumented to gather information while it’s running, possibly without the user’s knowledge,” claims the report.
The study conducted to understand what data Google collects, draws on four key sources: First, Google’s My Activity and Takeout tools, which describe information collected during the use of Google’s user-facing products; Second, Data intercepted as it is sent to Google server domains while Google or 3rd-party products are used; Third, Google’s privacy policies (both general and product-specific); and Fourth, other 3rd-party research that has examined Google’s data collection efforts.
The findings of the study note that a dormant, stationary Android phone with, Chrome active in the background, communicated location information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period, or at an average of 14 data communications per hour. The location information constituted 35% of all the data samples sent to Google as per the study. In contrast, on an Apple iOS device with Safari (where neither Android nor Chrome were used), Google could not collect any appreciable data (location or otherwise) in the absence of a user interaction with the device.
Google and Oracle have been engrossed in a copyright battle since 2010. Oracle had alleged that Google was aware of Android not using a proper Java license and that the company copied its APIs resulting in a copyright violation. In March 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favour of Oracle.