[LINK] Android's Messages, Dialer Apps Quietly Sent Text, Call Info To Google

[Kim Holburn]

https://yro.slashdot.org/story/22/03/22/2146234/androids-messages-dialer-apps-quietly-sent-text-call-info-to-google

> Google's Messages and Dialer apps for Android devices have been collecting and sending data to Google without specific notice and 
> consent <https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/21/google_messages_gdpr/>, and without offering the opportunity to opt-out, 
> potentially in violation of Europe's data protection law. From a report:
> /According to a research paper, "What Data Do The Google Dialer and Messages Apps On Android Send to Google?" /[PDF 
> <https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/privacyofdialerandsmsapps.pdf>]/, by Trinity College Dublin computer science professor Douglas 
> Leith, Google Messages (for text messaging) and Google Dialer (for phone calls) have been sending data about user communications 
> to the Google Play Services Clearcut logger service and to Google's Firebase Analytics service.
>
> "The data sent by Google Messages includes a hash of the message text, allowing linking of sender and receiver in a message 
> exchange," the paper says. "The data sent by Google Dialer includes the call time and duration, again allowing linking of the two 
> handsets engaged in a phone call. Phone numbers are also sent to Google." The timing and duration of other user interactions with 
> these apps has also been transmitted to Google. And Google offers no way to opt-out of this data collection. [...] Both 
> pre-installed versions of these apps, the paper observes, lack app-specific privacy policies that explain what data gets collected 
> -- something Google requires from third-party developers. And when a request was made through Google Takeout for the Google 
> Account data associated with the apps used for testing, the data Google provided did not include the telemetry data observed./ 


-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
+61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net   aim://kimholburn
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