₦airaland Forum

I recently made a post reporting that Android phones sends its user's location to Google without permission.

http://www.naijatechs.com/2017/11/android-phones-secretly-sends-location-to-google.html

Google has come forward to state that it will no longer track user's locations, a practice which impacts users' privacy.

Google said it chose to end the practice right after the report was brought to its attention.

In a statement emailed to USA TODAY, Google offered an explanation regarding the practice: "To ensure messages and notifications are received quickly, modern Android phones use a network sync system that requires the use of Mobile Country Codes (MCC) and Mobile Network Codes (MNC). In January of this year, we began looking into using Cell ID codes as an additional signal to further improve the speed and performance of message delivery."
Android phones regularly ping Google's servers using a system known as Firebase Cloud Messaging.

Google said that the location data were never stored in its network sync system, "so that data was immediately discarded."

Nevertheless, Google states that it is no longer requesting such Cell ID codes.

Google however reach out to advertisers who want to target customers based on their locations, through the company's online AdWords advertising program. Google can determine location through data collected via GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or in some instances a cell tower.

I think this is a good step, no one likes to be tracked without prior notice or permission.

Source - http://www.naijatechs.com/2017/11/google-stops-tracking-android-users.html