It is generally quoted that “ The more information you have, the more you are ahead in the war…” We all know this thing that iOS and Android are among the top mobile OS when it comes to choosing user interface, functions, and compatibilities. There is no doubt on this fact that the market set by Google has a big number than its counterpart iOS, but what matters to us is who cares about our privacy more!
As we move forward, we all are building are future more on automation and when the word automation comes to our mind, we have a slighter inclination towards Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Yes, its somewhat true but we need to understand one small thing too in our mind that:
Taking our discussion further with giants enganged in collecting data to provide best user experience, Professor Douglas J. Leith of Trinity College Dublin has recently published a research study on telemetry collection in mobile operating systems. In his research he explained the pattern of telemetry data ( it’s the data related to device statistice like battery draining duration, signal statistics and much more) collected by Android- Google’s product and iOS- Apple product and compared both on the basis of the amount of data they collect. Let’s understand about their key findings and threat to our privacy.
APPLE IS FAR BEHIND THAN GOOGLE IN TERMS OF COLLECTING TELEMERTY DATA
On performing certain experiments in lab isolated environment, the researchers were able to figure out the fact 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. So now we can say that if even our phone is idle, it is still working silently at the backend. Even you are not logged in as a user, the below table shows the amount and type of data which is sent to the Apple or Google:
The researchers also disclosed this fact that during the first 10 minutes of startup the Pixel handset sends around 1MB of data is sent to Google compared with the iPhone sending around 42KB of data to Apple. When the handsets are sitting idle the Pixel sends roughly 1MB of data to Google every 12 hours compared with the iPhone sending 52KB to Apple.
Whenever a SIM is entered into either Google or Apple device, SIM IMSI (which uniquely identifies a caller on the cellular network) handset hardware serial number, Wifi MAC address and a cookie is sent to one of the Google’s server whereas iOS sends the MAC addresses of nearby devices, e.g. other handsets and the home gateway, to Apple together with their GPS location.
The best part about data which is sent and what researchers and we like was the way of communication is held between the device and the backed server. All communicated and data sent takes place in encrypted form, leaving any chances of data getting leaked between line.
CONCLUSION
Though most of the data which is collected is being done through explicitly asking the user but still there is always some data which these giants collect in the name of improving their user experience without any consent and the end user does not have any control over it. Therefore, we suggest our readers to follow the following steps in order to minimize the collection of data:
