According to a study, the in-house system would be a much more talkative snitch than that of the apple brand. Of course, Google disputes the methodology and the result of the study.
As consumers know, using a smartphone is synonymous with personal data leakage. Mailbox, social networks, cameras, contacts, conversations, entertainment, all aspects of our daily life are found in these concentrates of technologies.
Since these small boxes have access to a large part of our life, they are inevitably the object of the greed of large companies who seek to know us better in order to target their actions more precisely. And at this little game, some companies would be less careful about privacy than others.
Android and iOS, 2 cookies
The study which was carried out relates to the data collected by the two operating systems of the phone in order to be transmitted to Google. Researcher Douglas Leith collected data emitted by an iPhone 8 and Pixel 2 in various situations such as switching on the phone, when it is on standby, while using the screen … If the protocol details of test interest you, the full study is available here .
Various information, including that of the sensors, is collected regularly and sent to Google servers every 4 min 30 s in both cases, even if the phone is on standby. For Apple, it is mainly Siri, Safari and iCould the largest sources of data while on Google’s side, the company is casting a wider net. The brand of the search engine would therefore use Chrome , YouTube , Google Docs , Safetyhub, Google Messenger, the integrated Google search bar and the system clock.
According to the results of the study, for a duration of 12 hours, Android would send 1 MB of data against about 50 KB for Apple. Over this period of time, this represents 1.3 TB of cumulative data from all Android devices against 5.8 GB for iOS devices.
A methodology contested by Google
Google reacted strongly to this study and strongly denied the veracity of the results. Despite Google’s opposition to the data collection policy implemented by Apple , the company never misses the opportunity to remind people that it aspires to provide quality service while respecting users’ privacy as much as possible. .
The Mountain View firm denounces the terms of the study and the so-called discrepancy. To justify this difference, a spokesperson explains that a smartphone (like a modern car according to his words) collects the data of the various components to transmit them to the manufacturer who can then ensure the proper functioning of the services and anticipate updates. days needed.
Since all this information is sent to the publisher of the operating system, it would be perfectly justified for an Android smartphone to communicate more with Google than a device running iOS. This is why the company quickly reacted to the extent of the difference observed because of a test protocol that would clearly favor the Cupertino company.
For its part, Apple has not yet made any comments.