Google collects data around the clock from the phones of Android users in particular – their location, shopping habits, music, searches and more, a Vanderbilt computer science professor found.
Doug Schmidt was able to track the practice for a study commissioned by Digital Content Next, a trade group representing digital publishers.
Google owns both Android and the Chrome search engine and, according to Schmidt’s study, a dormant Android phone running Chrome in the background sent location information roughly 14 times an hour. Data requests to Apple phones occur far less frequently, he found.
Read the full report here.