Mobile Handset Privacy: Measuring The Data iOS and Android Send to Apple And Google

We find that even when minimally configured and the handset is idle both iOS and Google Android share data with Apple/Google on average every 4.5 mins.

‼️ The phone IMEI, hardware serial number, SIM serial number and IMSI, handsetphone number etc are shared with Apple and Google. Both iOS and Google Android transmit telemetry, despite the user explicitly opting out of this.

💡 When a SIM is inserted both iOS and Google Android send details to Apple/Google. iOS sends the MAC addresses of nearby devices, e.g. other handsets and the home gateway, to Apple together with their GPS location. Currently there are few, if any, realistic options for preventing this data sharing.

https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf

#apple #google #study #telemetry #data #mobilephones #pdf
📡 @nogoolag @blackbox_archiv

TrackerControl

TrackerControl allows users to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behaviour (‘tracking’).

To detect tracking, TrackerControl combines the power of the Disconnect blocklist, used by Firefox, and our in-house blocklist is used, created from analysing ~2 000 000 apps! Additionally, TrackerControl supports custom blocklists.

💡 This approach

👉🏼 reveals the companies behind tracking,

👉🏼 allows to block tracking selectively, and

👉🏼 exposes the purposes of tracking, such as analytics or advertising.

The app also aims to educate about your rights under Data Protection Law, such the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Under the hood, TrackerControl uses Android’s VPN functionality, to analyse apps’ network communications locally on the Android device. This is accomplished through a local VPN server, to enable network traffic analysis by TrackerControl.

💡 No root is required, other VPNs or Private DNS are not supported. No external VPN server is used, to keep your data safe! TrackerControl even protects you against DNS cloaking, a popular technique to hide trackers in websites and apps.

TrackerControl will always be free and open source, being a research project.

https://trackercontrol.org/

https://github.com/OxfordHCC/tracker-control-android/releases/latest/download/TrackerControl-githubRelease-latest.apk

#TrackerControl #data #collection #android #apps #opensource
📡 @nogoolag 📡 @blackbox_archiv