few days back, cybernews Published a report claiming that the Pixel 9 Pro XL shares personal information with Google every 15 minutes, before setting up the device. This includes your location, your email address and phone number, app list, and other telemetry.
However, the developers behind the privacy-focused Android fork called GrapheneOS Note that this isn’t unique to the Pixel 9 Pro XL – it’s standard Android behavior. And not only that, they point out that iOS also collects almost the same information.
A wildly inaccurate article from CyberNews about the Pixel has been circulating everywhere in privacy communities. The details in it are almost completely wrong and things like the alternative network-based location used almost everywhere as pixel specific are completely misrepresented.
– GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) 9 October 2024
Any non-Pixel device with standard Google Play integration has a similar Google Services integration that does the same thing. You can’t avoid this at all by using a non-Pixel, but you end up with a device that is much less secure and adds OEM services with their own privacy issues.
– GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) 9 October 2024
This goes through the connection to the Google Play network-based location that Google Play offers as an option during the initial setup wizard, optional Google Play account-based device management, Google Play feature flags, Google Play telemetry, etc. A lot of information is wrong in this.
– GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) 9 October 2024
Everything included in iOS has direct equivalents.
If people take from the article that they must use a non-Pixel Android device with Google Play, they will have a dramatically less secure device with the same privacy issues and addition of OEM services.
– GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) 9 October 2024
cybernews We contacted Google before publishing the report and this was the response from Mountain View:
“User security and privacy are a top priority for Pixel. You can manage data sharing, app permissions, and more during device setup and in your settings. This report lacks critical context, misinterprets technical details and does not fully explain why data transmission is required for legitimate services on all mobile devices, regardless of manufacturer, model or OS. like software updates, on-demand features and personalized experiences,” A Google spokesperson said.
Additionally, Google is making changes to make Android more private. Late last year, it announced it would be moving the Your Timeline feature (a detailed track with your location history) to your device. Previously, it was stored in the cloud.
If you haven’t done so yet, you’ll soon receive an email asking you to change your settings – you can move location history to the device or switch on the auto-delete option (which can be found in Preferences Automatically erases data in 3 or 18 months, depending on ).
Timeline data is now stored on your device
You can learn more about what data is collected by Google and why on this page about Google Play Services.
