Around half of the world’s population uses Google Chrome across different platforms like Windows, Mac, Android, iOS. A recent report claims that the world’s widely used browser collects sensitive phone data without users realizing it. Forbes reports in its latest blog post that the tech giant is harvesting users’ critical data to monitor activities and pinpoint locations.
The report comes after the social media giant Facebook was accused of mining people users’ data and tracking the movement of iPhone users. The company did it by tapping into the device’s accelerometer all the time. As per the report, the social media giant tracks users even after turning off the tracking option in the iPhone’s privacy settings. Keeping in mind user privacy, Apple had given the facility to turn off app tracking through its iOS 14 operating system. However, it looks like Facebook has found a way of tracking data even after it was discontinued.
Google data collection
Researcher Tommy Mysk mentions in his blog post that Chrome shares Android users’ motion sensors by default. He says, “the motion sensor is accessible to all websites in Android/Chrome by default, [whereas] Safari/iOS protects access by a permission.”
“The way Android handles the accelerometer is much worse [than Facebook],” Mysk further added. Chrome, in response, said that the company is intentionally limiting the motions sensors resolution in Chrome. Additionally, the tech giant allows users to block websites from accessing a device’s motion sensors. Google claims that it always work towards improving security and privacy in Chrome.
Earlier, a research report by Trinity College, Dublin has compared the data of iPhone and Google Pixel phones. The report concluded that Google takes 20 times more data from its Android users than from iPhone. However, the tech giant expressed displeasure over this report. This research was done regarding mobile handset privacy.
How to uninstall Google Chrome on mobile
- Open your device’s Settings app
- Tap Apps & notifications.
- Tap Chrome.
- If you don’t see it, first tap See all apps or App info.
- Tap Disable.
