Unless a third relevant player enters the Smartphone OS market, which seems quite unlikely at present though, there will always be a comparison between the two biggest players in the domain – Android of Google and iOS of Apple – for one or some other reason. And this time, it’s about the data collection category. It has been reported that Android collects as much as ten times the data that iOS collect through its smart devices.
How Does Android Collect Our Data?
Android usually collects our data with the help of the apps that either already exist in our respective smart-phones or the ones which we download from the Google Play Store. These apps get access to the data stored in the device with the help of various permissions and conditions which we are required to accept before downloading an app. Further, it analyzes our usage of their respective applications, including the websites you visit and the videos you watch, as mentioned on their website regarding privacy.
The observation regarding the difference in the size of the data collected by the two entities occurred in a research titled ‘Google data collection‘ which was conducted by a computer science professor in the Vanderbilt University called Douglas C. Schmidt. He experimented with the data collected and transmitted by the Chrome browser to Google in an idle Android device over a period of 24 hours. He then conducted the same experiments on the Safari browser in an idle iOS device and compared the results. The conclusions drawn from the results yielded the staggering data collection difference between the two entities.
As astounding as the size of Google’s stash of data collection is, it is not the only thing Google has come under public scrutiny for. In the past, Google’s manner of data collection has often been questioned, arising from reports of data collection without proper clearances and permission. In the November of 2017, it was reported that Google collected data regarding their users’ location, even when the location services were disabled. In the April of 2018, it was reported that Google was collecting data extensively regarding children, thus violating US privacy laws which protected children under the age of 13 from invasive data collection.
What Is Google Up to?
The answer to this question lies in Google’s annual worldwide revenue collection. Google’s revenue has risen exponentially from $1.5 billion in 2003 to $109.65 billion in 2017. But out of the money generated in 2017, Google’s ad revenue accounted for $95.4 billion of it. That’s almost 90% of the whole revenue, thus shedding light on the fact that regardless of the numerous business sectors the company has gotten itself involved in, Google is essentially an ad company. It thrives on showing the advertisements relevant to its users at all times. And the engine of this business runs solely and exclusively on one particular fuel, data. This is the reason Google never fails to go out of its way to knowing as much about us as it can. In this respect, Apple follows strict guidelines regarding the privacy that each of its users is entitled to.
