Google Showing Signs of Increased Concerns Over Rising Data Privacy Scrutiny

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Google Showing Signs of Increased Concerns Over Rising Data Privacy Scrutiny

By CircleID Reporter
August 19, 2019, 7:05 pm PDT Views: 12,084 Comments: 1

Earlier this year, Google quietly terminated its “Mobile Network Insights” service, which provided wireless carriers globally, information on network performance in various locations. The data was derived from devices running Google’s Android operating system, and according to a Reuters report, the shut down followed “Google’s concerns that sharing data from users of its Android phone system might attract the scrutiny of users and regulators.” Angela Moon and Paresh Dave of Reuters write: “The withdrawal of the service, which has not been previously reported, has disappointed wireless carriers that used the data as part of their decision-making process on where to extend or upgrade their coverage. Even though the data were anonymous and the sharing of it has become commonplace, Google’s move illustrates how concerned the company has become about drawing attention amid a heightened focus in much of the world on data privacy.”

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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Don’t mobile carriers already have this data, Daniel Aleksandersen – Sep 30, 2019 3:49 PM

Don’t mobile carriers already have this data, though? Do phones seriously not report their signal strength back to the carriers? How many generations of mobile comms protocol standards are we at now and they haven’t added in this ability on the protocol level yet?

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