14 DAY TRIAL // If you think that by disabling the location services on your Android device you'll be safe, then think again. It turns out that the location of Android users is still being determined by Google using other means.
The ability to turn the location off is one of the utmost importance, in an era when privacy is paramount. The fact that Google is still able to determine your location using other means than GPS is worrying, especially since users are led to believe that by tuning the location services off people are no longer giving away their position.
According to a report on Quartz.com, it turns out that Google doesn’t really need for you to turn on GPS in order to know where you are, within a reasonable margin. Of course, the company says that the information about the user’s location is not being stored, but what else can they say not that the cat is out of the bag?
How is it done?
Google has been gathering the address cell towers near the users, even when the GPS function has been disabled. You might think that it’s not a big deal, but keep in mind that your position can be easily triangulated by the system when the location of more than two towers is known. And that happens even with the GPS off.
The company says that the measure was taken to improve the speed and performance of message delivery, but the Cell ID was never incorporated into the system. So, that means that they know where you are at any given point, but they can’t say where you’ve been since that data isn’t stored. And there is no other recourse than just believe them.
Technically, using just three towers, the location of a certain device can be determined with some accuracy, but not by much. Things really change in urban settings where there are multiple towers, and the location can be determined with much better accuracy.
A SIM card is not even needed
You might be tempted to think that a phone with no SIM card is not even going to register, but according to the Quartz investigation, when Android devices are connected to a Wi-Fi, they will send the location of the cell towers to Google.
While the information is sent encrypted, that is by no means completely secure. What’s even more interesting is that Google is covered for these practices, because they already mention it in the Privacy Policy.
“When you use Google services, we may collect and process information about your actual location. We use various technologies to determine location, including IP address, GPS, and other sensors that may, for example, provide Google with information on nearby devices, Wi-Fi access points, and cell towers.”
Google is now saying that they are going to stop collecting cell tower locations, but it will take a while to discontinue this practice since it’s already being used by various apps and services within the ecosystem.