Tracking you 340 times a day, welcome to the era of zero privacy

Baidu has been embroiled in controversy these days, and Google isn't having an easy time either.

On January 21, local time, according to evidence provided by the French regulator, the National Data Protection Commission (CNIL), Google's user agreement violated Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was updated in 2018. French regulators fined Google's parent company Alphabet Inc 50 million euros!

This is the highest fine ever imposed on a company in Europe for violating data privacy laws. Many English technology media used the term "record high" to describe the severity of the penalty.

According to the new European regulations, Google has violated many specific items, such as: data collection information is not transparent, users are not aware of data collection, complete information on data processing and storage time is not all in the same place, and Google search engine does not obtain user consent to collect targeted advertising data, etc.

Is it the European government that is “intercepting” or Google that is “doing evil”?

Through investigation, the reporter found a report published by Vanderbilt University in the United States, "Google Data Collection". The author of this 53-page report is Douglas C. Schmidt, a computer professor at the institution. This report exposes Google's unbridled data collection behavior.

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The spy reporter was surprised and deeply terrified. So, how much data does Google collect about you? How does it use your data? Let's take a look at this report.

The professor did an experiment, but...

In order to conduct this experiment, Schmidt used a new Android phone, a new SIM card and a newly registered Google account. He named this user "Jane" and told us about a day in the life of a Google user.

Let's briefly talk about the data sources and survey methods. Here, Professor Schmidt conducted this survey using the following four types of data:

• Data displayed by Google's My Activity and Takeout;
• Data intercepted from Google server domains;
• Data appearing in Google's privacy policy;

Data collected by Google as observed by third-party research organizations.

“A typical scenario goes like this:

• For every user with a Google account and an Android phone, Google collects data at numerous touchpoints of activity, such as location, routes taken, items purchased, and music listened to. Surprisingly, more than two-thirds of this information is collected or inferred through passive means. At the end of the day, Google has a pretty accurate picture of user interests.”

Report screenshot

This seems normal. After all, "no privacy, data leakage" is not uncommon in modern life. So, what information of yours is collected? How does Google collect it?

340 tracking times a day, turning off the phone, not using Google, turning off WIFI is useless

In terms of quantity, Google's servers transfer 11.6 MB of data every day through Android devices, constantly uploading and backing up in the background. Personal user information on Android phones includes name, mobile phone number, birthday, zip code, credit card number, and activities on the phone (apps and websites used, including how they are used).

(Report screenshot: Comparison of data collected by Google and Apple, Android and IOS devices for a standard user)

From the above picture, we can also see that the frequency of information collection by Google on Android users is as high as 90 times per hour, which is more than double the information collected by Google on Apple users. What's interesting is that the location coordinate data collection is also "very smart", and the amount of data collected on the mobile phone in use is 1.4 times higher than that on the mobile phone that is not turned on.

However, the following experimental findings about the collection method are frightening. Below, we will formally take you to experience the "intimate service" exclusively for Google users. The all-round "passive collection" is Google's unique secret weapon.

"A dormant Android phone, with Chrome active in the background, transmits location information to Google 340 times in a 24-hour period. Location information accounts for 35% of all data samples sent to Google. In contrast, on iOS Apple devices without the Chrome browser installed, Google collects no data at all."

The experiment further showed that even if users did not interact with any key Google applications, Google could still collect a lot of information through its advertiser and publisher products. "As soon as Android phone users turned on their phones, passive data collection increased significantly, accounting for 46% of all requests made to Google servers."

Even if you don't open any Google applications or use Google Search, passive communication with Google's server domains will increase significantly. Why does Google collect data like this and where does the collected data go?

A good show: Anti-tracking under the banner of "anonymity"

I believe everyone has guessed that the core behind this part of the data activity is Google's advertising profit tools - Google Ads, Google Analytics and Google Ad Manager. The tools Google provides to merchants are unique in the world, and publisher tools include AdSense and advertiser tools such as AdMob and AdWords.

How do these tools apply your information everywhere in a platform way?

Report screenshot, note that it is different from the above: Information sent from the user end by Apple and Google devices

Google uses the collected data by specifically marking the so-called "anonymous users" in the system, which is a blatant interpretation of "there is no silver here". Why?

Because Google will collect activity data from its own apps and third-party web page visits, and then associate it with the user's Google identity. This is mainly achieved by Android devices passing the "device identifier" to Google servers. At the same time, the "advertising identifier" also comes in handy at this time, forming a complete closure.

Google is able to associate so-called "anonymous data" collected through passive means with users' personal information - going around in circles and finally going to great lengths to apply user information through "legal means".

Likewise, the Google Ad Manager cookie ID (which caches information about a user’s activity on third-party web pages) is another purportedly “user-anonymous” identifier. If a user visits a Google application in the same browser, Google can connect it to the user’s Google Account from a previously visited third-party web page.

Confused? Let the spy help you clear up. The characteristics of Google's data collection are as follows:

Utilize various products and technologies to collect user data in ways that are not easily detected by ordinary users.

The main part of Google’s data collection occurs when users are not directly using any Google products, especially on Android mobile devices.

While information is typically collected while the user is anonymous, Google clearly has the ability to de-anonymize such collections using data collected from other sources.

This complete report is very long, and I hope that students who are interested in studying the experimental methods and experimental process will explore it carefully. I will not go into the specific details of the technology and where the users were served advertisements.

Because, there are just too many.

Personalized ads on YouTube are just one example. Google’s advertising business covers 90% of global users and 2 million mainstream websites. Your life has been clearly seen by Google’s “data manipulation”.

Does this sound like an episode of Black Mirror?

As outlined in the report: "Across these products, Google collects a wide range of information about people's online and real-world behavior and then uses it to target paid ads. For example, as its targeting technology and data have improved, Google's revenue has increased significantly."

Google is an Internet company and an advertising company

Like you, we, the spies, love Google products. Let’s first get to know Google in 2019.

For example, when the spy wrote this article, he used Google's search engine, Android phones, Chrome browser, Google Translate and Google Docs. In addition, the video platform Youtube, the email service Gmail and Google Maps, each of which has more than 1 billion monthly active users.

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Google Empire/Photo from CS Open Source

Google's services are so convenient, but as a free user, how much value have you created for Google?

According to Forbes, Google's profits in 2018 totaled $126 billion, ranking 14th among the world's top 500 companies with the highest profits. This is the 13th year that Google has been on the Forbes Global 500 list, but the growth curve of its business profits is exponential.

Image source: Statista

Google's parent company Alphabet is not only an Internet company, but also a global digital advertising company. This is the key to Google's "free" but profitable. The fine imposed by the French monitoring agency seems to be a lot, but in fact, it is far less than one percent of Google's profit for the whole year of 2018, only 0.0045%.

This "record-breaking" fine is just a drop in the bucket for Google!

We’ve discussed data privacy many times before, but is it still realistic to achieve data protection in 2019? Technology companies have really swept into our lives as if they were prophesied in science fiction movies. Now Google knows me much better than I know myself.

For entrepreneurs, the lack of restrictions on data privacy may be a good thing, as it allows more data to play a role and more valuable products to improve our lives. However, can we completely abandon our need for privacy as human beings? There is a saying in English that "Freedom is not Free".

Even if I find alternatives for all products, use Microsoft email, use DuckDuckGo to surf the Internet, and use iPhone instead of Android phone. I am afraid that this approach will not have any effect in the long run.

Data determines everything. Perhaps it is an inevitable trend of the times, or perhaps it is our common future.

Are you ready to throw away your Android phone after reading this article? Or do you have a new opinion about Google?