Google made it harder for Android users to find privacy settings
Google made a number of privacy-related announcements on Google I / O earlier this month, such as: B. a new privacy dashboard for Android and the rapid fire function to delete the last 15 minutes of your web browsing activity. However, recently uncovered court documents revealed that Google actually made it harder for Android users to find popular privacy settings.
Unedited court documents filed against Google by the Arizona Attorney General (discovered by insider) show that Google allegedly tested versions of Android that made it easier to find privacy settings. When users took advantage of these easier-to-find settings, Google allegedly viewed them as a “problem” and buried these privacy settings deeper in the platform’s settings menu.
According to the documents, Google has removed location switching from its quick settings menu on Pixel phones. For what it’s worth, our Pixel 4 with the Android 12 beta doesn’t show the location toggling at all. But man Android Authority Member Dhruv Bhutani says the toggle is present on his Pixel 3XL and Pixel 4a (with Android 11 and Android 12 beta, respectively).
The documents also claim that Google was collecting location data even when users turned off those settings, and that Android OEMs like LG and others were pressured to hide popular privacy settings because they were being used by users. It is believed that Google put pressure on LG to move the “change of location” to a second page (presumably the second page in the quick settings menu).
Again, checking a T-Mobile LG V60 shows that the change of location is on the second page of the quick settings menu. However, when it comes to Google’s Pixel phones, the location of the toggle switch may vary as well.
Dissatisfaction with Google?
According to the documents submitted, Google’s obvious data protection measures were also rated negatively by some employees. At least one employee apparently lamented the fact that a user cannot get their own location without passing this information on to Google.
“Mistake # 2: * I * should * be able to get * my * location on * my * phone without sharing that information with Google (sic),” one employee was quoted as saying. The employee said this may be why Apple is “eating our lunch.” The iPhone maker added that it was “much more likely” that users could use location-based apps and services without giving this information to Apple itself.
“So there is no way to assign your location to a third-party app and not to Google?” Another employee was quoted in the documents. “That doesn’t sound like something we see on the front page of (New York Times). ”
Former Google Maps CEO Jack Menzel also highlighted the extent of Google’s apparent thirst for location data. During a filing, he found that Google could only find out a user’s place of residence and work if the user instead set their place of residence and work as other random locations.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of the apparent lengths Google would take to determine your location. The company previously confirmed that they would still track you if you turned off your location history.
In both cases, the documents seem to suggest that Google’s recent privacy push isn’t entirely for good reason. Do you think Google is doing a good job of privacy on Android? Let us know by voting in the poll above.
