Google is under investigation in Australia for data collection via Android devices

It seems like the tech giant Google might have some tough days ahead. The (ACCC) Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is going to start an investigation on Google following a recent report which claimed that the tech giant gathers a huge amount of data from Android devices.

A fellow US tech firm Oracle has reported that Google is prying on Australian mobile subscribers by not only tracking them but also collecting information related to a user's surfing patterns. It is being reported that the Oracle report had further claimed that Google is consuming around 1GB of mobile data monthly from the account of each Android phone user in Australia. It is being speculated that Android users in Australia cough up about $445 million and $580 million for using Google. The company is being said to send back the location of Android users to its servers even if the location-based services are switched off.

It is also quite alarming that the Oracle researchers seem to believe that the tech giant Google has been also including barometric pressure readings in its log. This, in turn, helped the advertisers to work out on which level of a shopping mall was the target consumer at. The barometer and thermometers are available in some of the high-end Android phones. However, the hardware for the same is not available in most of the Android smartphones.

Google Home Unboxing and Setup process - GIZBOT

Further, Rod Sims, chairman of the ACCC, has confirmed that Oracle representatives have briefed the regulator on the subject. According to him, "The ACCC met with Oracle and is considering information it has provided about Google services. We are exploring how much consumers know about the use of location data and are working closely with the privacy commissioner, he further added.

Also, in one of our recent articles related to Google, we covered that The I/O 2018 developer conference was concluded recently and Google had something in store for every age group. During the I/O 2018, Google has also introduced the latest version of Android which is the Android P along with a certain set of new features. The features included gesture-based-navigation, adaptive battery and app actions apart from the new APIs that it introduced for the developers. Read the complete story here.