Reports indicate that Google continues to track its Android users. The latest mobile operating system build constantly switches on the GPS tracking option. To block the spying mechanism users need to delete the Google Maps and Google Play apps from their devices.
Android Users Tracking Has Become an Obsession for Google
A lot of Android users who have updated to the recent versions of the Android mobile operating system have reported that their battery runs out quicker than before. A detailed inspection shows that Google Play constantly switches on the built-in GPS location services that Google uses to track their users.
The service is used to deliver location data to the installed mobile applications via an Android API. Google Play also sends the information to the company’s servers for storage. The user can deny access to the device’s location by navigating to the Settings app and going to the Apps –> Google Play Store –> Permissions menu. The “location” option can be turned off however that may not be a complete solution. The same can be done for the Google Maps app. However, a warning message indicating that “basic features of your device may no longer function as intended” will be displayed. When a user disables the GPS capability of their devices, this doesn’t mean that it is switched off as system services can enable it again.
This behaviour encourages apps to depend on Google’s closed source Play services instead of the interfaces that are available on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP).
The tracking function is used by Google’s servers to deliver location-aware applications and services to the users. To eliminate this privacy issue users will need to delete altogether the Google Maps and Google Play applications from their devices and rely on alternatives.
