A few days ago, Cyber news published a report claiming that the Pixel 9 Pro XL shares personal information with Google every 15 minutes, even before the device is set up. This includes your location, your email address and phone number, app list, and other telemetry.
However, the developers behind the privacy-focused Android fork called GrapheneOS Point out that this isn’t unique to the Pixel 9 Pro XL – it’s standard Android behavior. Not only that, they point out that iOS collects much the same information.
There is a very inaccurate article about Pixels from Cybernews that is making the rounds in the privacy community. It almost completely gets the details wrong and thoroughly misrepresents the optional network-based location that is almost universally used as Pixel-specific.
— GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) October 9, 2024
Every non-Pixel device with the standard Google Play integration has a similar Google service integration that does the same things. You don’t avoid it at all by using a non-Pixel, but you do get a device that is much less secure and adds OEM services with their own privacy concerns.
— GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) October 9, 2024
It goes through connections for the Google Play network-based location offered as an option during the initial setup wizard, the optional Google Play account-based device management, Google Play feature flags, Google Play telemetry, etc. It gets a lot of details wrong.
— GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) October 9, 2024
iOS has direct equivalents for everything under it.
If people take from the article that they need to use a non-Pixel Android device with Google Play, they will have a dramatically less secure device with the same privacy issues and additional problems from OEM services.
— GrapheneOS (@GrapheneOS) October 9, 2024
Cyber news had contacted Google before the report was published and this was Mountain View’s response:
“User security and privacy are top priorities for Pixel. You can manage data sharing, app permissions, and more during device setup and in your settings. This report lacks crucial context, misinterprets technical details, and does not fully explain that data transmission is necessary for legitimate services on all mobile devices, regardless of manufacturer, model, or operating system, such as software updates, on-demand features, and personalized experiences. ” said a Google spokesperson.
Additionally, Google has made changes to make Android more private. Late last year, it announced that it was moving the Your Timeline feature (a detailed track of your location history) to your device. Previously it was stored in the cloud.
If you haven’t already done so, you will soon receive an email asking you to change your settings. You can move the location history on the device or enable the auto-delete option (which automatically clears the data after 3 or 18 months, depending on your preference).
Timeline data is now saved to your device
You can find more information about what data Google collects and why this page about Google Play services.