How Google tracks Android users. How to protect yourself from Google surveillance (and why you need it)
If you have repeatedly opened your computer, then you have probably used the search engine at least once. Google system. But do you know what data it collects and what it knows about you? Google uses certain technologies to read information about its users.
Look at the list of 6 links that will tell you what Google knows about us:
1. Your Google profile
Google creates a profile with your basic data - age, gender, interests. This data is used to show you relevant ads. You can view this information here:
(approx. Translation - in my case, Google does not shine with information. I am not a member of Google+, and from the sites I visited, Google could not determine my gender, and determined my age at 65+ years).
2. History of your movements
If you have an Android device, it can send your location and speed to Google. You can view your movement history and output it to a file:
(approx. Translation - I don’t have such devices; you can admire the history of the reader’s movements with, who was engaged in pizza delivery)
3. Your Google Search History
Google may store your search history. Additionally, it saves a history of the ads you clicked on. All this is available here:
(approx. Translation - this feature must be enabled in your account)
4. List of devices that accessed your account
If you are wondering if someone else is using your account, you can view a list of all devices that have accessed it, their IP addresses and location:
5. List all apps and extensions accessing your Google data
A list of all applications that have any access to your data. You can see what rights they have and what they have access to. You can also revoke this access.
6. Google to go
The fact that mobile devices and, in particular, smartphones “track” their owners is no secret to anyone. But you probably don’t know how many different cunning methods are used for this!
"Marauder's Map"
The other day, for example, Western users were alarmed at how much it turns out that they know about us Google Maps. Moreover, you just need to enter the person’s name into the search on this service, and anyone can actually see a short history his life - where he studied, where he worked and works, where he goes most often.
This, however, does not work for everyone, especially if the person has a common name. But, you must admit, the trend is frightening.
The Guardian newspaper journalist was not very happy when, using his name, the map showed not even his place of work, but a bar where he often goes to play cards. He shared his discovery on Twitter, after which users began to enter their names en masse into Google Maps and realized that their movements were visible to the whole world, like on the magical “Marauder's Map” from the books and films about Harry Potter.
Spy in your pocket
Moreover, your smartphone – your faithful friend, assistant and “personal secretary” – works as a spy without your knowledge, carefully storing information about your location down to hours and minutes!
Moreover, it is not so easy to prevent him from doing this. On the iPhone, for example, this storage is hidden quite far from your eyes. However, Apple swears that data is not sent online without your permission.
But owners of Android smartphones should think twice about it, because their data is sent straight to Google, so to a stranger You don't even need your phone to see all your movements. All you need is a computer with the Internet anywhere in the world, from where you can access your Google account.
How to disable the basic “tracking function” on your phone?
iPhone
As already mentioned, this option is Apple devices hidden very deep. Here's how to get there. Settings – Privacy – Location Services – System Services – Frequent Locations. Here you are in the vault! Log in and make sure your iPhone knows where, when and for how long you're visiting! To stop this, simply move the float to the OFF position.
Android smartphones
It will be easier here. Go to Settings – Location – Location History ( Google Location History). And switch to OFF.
By the way, know that this will not prevent you from continuing to use maps or other services that use geolocation: they will remain functional.
How else can you be tracked using your smartphone?
Business Insider counted 5 main ways.
1. Cell towers
This is the most common way - to calculate your location based on the signal strength received from your phone by nearby towers. Most often, three are enough for this.
It is impossible to hide from such surveillance if your phone is turned on and not in Airplane mode.
2. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
These modules, which are found in any phone, also do an excellent job of spying on you. Each has a unique MAC address to identify your device on the network. Even if your phone is not connected to Wi-Fi or another Bluetooth device, it still sends signals with the MAC address to other nearby devices, such as a router.
You can prevent this by turning off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when you don't need them.
3. Fake cell towers
Yes, yes, these really exist! In fact, these are so-called “IMSI catchers” (IMSI is a unique identifier mobile subscriber, which is contained in the SIM card). Portable fake towers don't necessarily look like the real thing, and they don't have to be installed on rooftops—they can be built into another device or even into a wall.
See how they work. Your phone is always searching for all available towers nearby and can switch from one to another 10-20 times during a single call. But IMSI catchers intercept your call, tricking the phone into thinking there's only one tower available nearby. But in fact, this is a receiver disguised as a tower that receives your data.
But real example. In the fall of 2014, specialists cellular communication determined from the characteristic features known to them that the phones fell into the interception area in the area of the Russian Embassy in Washington. But who is watching whom? There are 2 options: either Russia has placed fake towers on the territory of the embassy to track data on any subscribers, even just passing by, or, on the contrary, “IMSI catchers” are installed outside and spy on activities inside the embassy.
The bad news: There doesn't seem to be a reliable way to get rid of this type of tracking yet.
4. Applications and web browsing
Your phone can also be tracked through the numerous apps installed on it or when you are busy surfing the internet. Applications often use your location data, which is leaked online through them, sometimes making your smartphone vulnerable to hackers and other intruders.
How to deal with this? You can limit the number of applications that can access your location. For example, services like Google Maps need this, while games and social media can do just fine without such access.
IN iPhone this can be done here: Settings – Privacy – Location Services.
IN Android devices There is no such function for applications in the settings. But if you wish, you can find a lot of advice on how to access it.
5. GPS tracking
Finally, phones are tracked and GPS system. Only satellites have nothing to do with it: they only send signals, but do not receive them from your phone. We are talking about the GPS module in your smartphone, which determines its own location and can then transmit data to the network through applications.
This will help again advice from point 4: Try blocking some applications from accessing your location, especially those that clearly do not need it.
Almost any device Android control in addition to standard components operating system, which it needs to work, contains an impressive number of Google applications and services. This Google Play, Gmail, Maps, Google App, camera, calendar, dialer and many others, including those completely invisible to the average user.
Any Google application has built-in user surveillance in one form or another. The company needs it for two purposes: firstly, it allows it to provide the user with the most relevant tips (in search, location, recommendations), and secondly (and more importantly), it helps Google find out almost everything about its users: where they go what they are interested in, who they communicate with, what they buy, what applications they use, what passwords they set on websites, and much more. All this data is recorded, stored for years and is unlikely to be deleted even after you delete Google account. The company does not explain how this surveillance works, and it is impossible to say how large-scale it is. Recently Google started use self-learning algorithms in your applications with artificial intelligence, which further destroy the privacy of our data.
Of course, there is nothing terrible in the very fact of collecting detailed information about the user - these are the technologies that allow you to customize new smartphone and restore all data in it in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this information will not be used against us in the future. As Nathan Rothschild said, “Whoever controls the information controls the world.” So why not nip it in the bud and stop Google from tracking you?
This is quite easy to do. The very first step is to go to settings, find the section with accounts and disable data synchronization via Gmail. You can do it easier and completely remove your Google account from your smartphone and link it to it mail account any other mail service.
Then you need to open the Google Settings app and turn off Google access to a location (“Access to geodata -> Access to my geodata / Sending geodata / Location history”), sending personal data to a search engine (“Search -> Personal data”), Google Now(“Search -> Google Now”) and remote control (“ Remote control -> Remote search devices/ Remote blocking and reset settings"). Here you can also disable or disable any application or website that uses your account for authorization. Google entry.
If your smartphone is rooted, you can go even further and physically remove all Google applications from your smartphone. IN standard Android there are more than two dozen of them - they are all stored in the /system/app and /system/priv-app folders. Simply deleting these folders (or the individual APK files stored in them if you want to keep some applications).
Google apps depend on several frameworks from the /system/framework directory (com.google.android.maps.jar, com.google.android.media.effects.jar and com.google.widevine.software.drm.jar) and /system /lib. They can also be demolished.
Instead of Google applications, you can install analogues from other developers. It's best to do this before you tear down Google Play and install another app store ( Amazon Appstore, Yandex.Store or 1Mobile Market), the choice of which is not so wide.
You can also try to find third-party firmware for your smartphone without Google apps. The disadvantage of this method is that you will not have any Google applications at all, including the Google Play store. In addition, applications that require Google services will refuse to work, and you will not be able to access cloud scanner viruses.
Living without Google will be difficult, but pleasant.
Where you can view all the information that the company collects and change your settings for receiving it. Last week, a new service appeared there, “My Actions,” which displays all your online activities associated with your Google account. Even if you don't think you need to worry about the security of your personal data, it's still worth checking these settings from time to time. At least you can be sure that you are happy with what you are sharing with Google.
Screenshot: New service My Activity will show you how much Google knows about you.
You can view what Google stores about you and configure the collection of this information as follows.
How to see all your activities on the Web and applications
Every time you search for something in Chrome on your computer or smartphone, Google tracks your actions to personalize the results. The same thing happens when you use others Google apps type Google Maps or Google Now.
All iPhones and Android devices have app and web history saved by default, including search queries and activity on maps. This is because all of these actions are directly linked to your Google account.
You can view all collected information using the “My Actions” service.
But if you want Google to stop tracking some of your activities, you'll have to dig a little deeper.
How to stop Google from tracking your online activities
Here you can see all the types of data that Google tracks. To disable saving your app and web history, simply tap the icon on the right.
If this is not enough for you and you want to clear the entire history of your online activities, do the following.
To begin, select “Manage History.” You will be redirected back to the My Activities page where you will need to open additional menu(to do this, click on the icon in the form of three vertical dots in the right top corner).
In the menu, select “Select a deletion option” and then “All the time.” You can delete data received for a certain period of time by specifying it in special fields.
Learn more about how to remove searches from your computer or mobile device, you will find on the dedicated Google help page.
Check if your location is visible on the Internet
Google may track your location if you allow it.
To check if your geographic data is being tracked, go to “Check your activity tracking settings.” There you can view all the geographic data saved about you by clicking "Managing History".
As with web history, location tracking can be turned off with a single click on the icon on the right.
To delete your location history, select "Managing History", and then click on the trash can icon in the lower right corner.
Listen to all your Google voice commands
Every time you say "Okay Google" or click the microphone icon, Google will record what you say.
More information about how Google saves history voice search, can be found.
View your activity on YouTube
Google keeps track of what you search on YouTube and remembers what videos you've watched. You can edit your saved history in a similar way in the Activity Tracking section.
There you can also see when and at what time you searched for or watched a particular video, as well as see from which device this action was performed.
In addition, Google has a page where you can step by step configure what data about yourself you are willing to share. There you can also check the relevance of your privacy settings and displayed advertising.
You can find more information about how Google uses your data.
Personal information security settings in Google services, slightly hidden from the user. Today I will tell you how to get to them. But first let's figure it out Why does Google monitor users? and how bad it is.
Google surveillance
Google and social networks analyze your behavior as a user on the Internet. The collected data is used to create a user profile and sold to advertisers, and the more detailed the profile, the higher the price they ask for it.
Consequently, the default privacy settings of these services tend to be designed to encourage the user to provide as much information about themselves as possible. Of course, it is possible to limit the data collected, however social services are not interested in their customers being able to easily discover and change such settings.
Therefore, especially for you, I found them on Google and am ready to tell you how to set up profiles in a few clicks to provide only the most necessary information about myself. It is also worth noting that if you absolutely do not want to share any personal data with these services at all, there is only one way left - to completely delete your account.
When registering with Google services, you sign a kind of agreement: free use in exchange for personal data. Therefore, you should not run into Google. Everyone is trying to make money as best they can. For free things you also have to pay something!
Protection from Google
How to protect yourself from Google surveillance?
Protection from Google is not quite mandatory measure. Every network user should not resort to it. But for those who have something to hide, I would advise them to still apply the methods outlined in this article to protect personal information.
Privacy at Google
After you have entered your account, Google begins to constantly monitor your web surfing even as you use third party services. Therefore, before logging into your account, uncheck the Stay logged in.
To open your account and privacy settings, log into your account, click your profile picture in the top right corner, and then select Account.
Google Personal Account
On the account settings page, scroll down to the “Tools” section. The first line is Personal Account, where you can see all the services used and an overview of your activity for each of them, which Google saves. By clicking on the links, you will open the settings of the corresponding service.
How to prevent data collection
Google remembers not only search queries and online behavior, but also the places you visit (due to continuous operation geolocation services), contacts and calendar entries stored on your Android smartphone, searching and watching videos on YouTube. However, this can be prevented. Scroll down the account settings page to the Tools section and select the History line there. By moving the sliders to Disable in each of the six categories, you will prevent Google from storing that data in the future. Link History management leads to the page with detailed information, where you can delete individual existing records.
Recently, Google introduced a feature with which a user can view all his actions in Google services and disable the collection of information.
How to delete a Google+ profile
When you register with Google, a social profile is automatically created. Google network+. It is possible to remove it. Without leaving the History section, scroll all the way down to the item Similar settings. Click on the Google+ button to edit your settings. Scroll the page from Google settings+ all the way down and click on the link under the subheading Disable Google+. After entering your login information, you can delete your Google+ profile.
Account access
In addition to Google, numerous applications also have access to your data, including even those that you deleted a long time ago. To revoke access rights to programs, return to the account settings page and in the section Related apps and services click Account access. Select unnecessary program and in the column on the right click the button Deny access.