Google is receiving approximately 1GB of Android tracking data per a single smartphone user every month, Oracle officials recently told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The agency’s Chairman Rod Sims was briefed on the matter earlier this spring, with the emphasis being on several antitrust concerns such practice raises outside of its privacy implications. With a gigabyte of data costing up to the equivalent of $4.50 in Australia, the ten million Android users in the country are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to send their data to Google on an annual basis, Oracle estimates.
While users are able to opt out of some data collection schemes, preventing any kind of information from being relayed to Google is impossible, even if an Android device isn’t being used, is in airplane mode, or had its SIM card removed. Nothing short of turning off an Android smartphone disables data collection, Oracle claims. The type of information being sent back to the Mountain View, California-based company is also extremely varied and spans far beyond online browsing activity, with the report providing the example of Google using one’s GPS coordinates to find out they’re at a mall, then combining it with barometric pressure readings to determine the floor on which they’re located and work out which store they’re visiting, consequently using that behavior to identify ads that led to successful shop visits and improve its targeting algorithms.
A Google spokesperson referred to Oracle’s presentation as “sleight of hand,” implying the report has been made with the goal of making the company look bad and adding that any kind of location sharing is optional for all Android users, with the firm also allowing them to view and control what kind of data they’re sharing under their Google Account settings. The ACCC asked Oracle for input on the matter as part of its latest advertising market inquiry, Mr. Sims said. Google and Oracle have a long history of legal disputes, particularly in regards to their never-ending clash over Android and select Java APIs previously used by the world’s most popular operating system. Google ditched Oracle’s Java code with Android 7.0 Nougat released in 2016 but is still being pursued by the Redwood Shores, California-based technology company over what it believes are previously unpaid licensing fees.