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

Douglas J. Leith
School of Computer Science & Statistics,
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
25th March, 2021

... what data iOS on an iPhone shares with Apple and what data Google Android on a Pixel phone shares with 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's

• IMEI
• Hardware serial number
• SIM serial number
• IMSI
• Handset phone number

And more 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 t_ogether with their GPS location_.

Currently there are few, if any, realistic options for preventing this data sharing. [Without replacing the operating system.

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

#SurveillanceCapitalism #mobile #MobilePhones #phones #IOW #Android #Google #Apple #BigData #DataTheft #privacy #security #Orwellian

Fairly straightforward, drop in replacement: https://e.foundation/
#OpenSource #Free #degoogled