Android collects 20x more user data than iOS, both OS send info to Google, Apple every 4.5 mins: Report

 While you are reading this article, your smartphone is likely sending a bunch of information like your local network details, your phone number or your location to its OS developer. While it has now common knowledge that some of the user information is shared with OS developers for a more intuitive experience on a device, a researcher has done a >comparative study on the data collected by both Android and iOS. They found out that Google's Android collects about 20 times as much data as its Apple competitor, iOS.

The research was conducted by Douglas J Leith and his team from Trinity College Dublin. Leith and his team compared a Pixel phone made by Google against an iPhone to see which manufacturer collects more user data. The research found that on average, both Pixel and iPhone models shared data with their respective manufacturers every four and a half minutes. The data collected includes IMEI, hardware serial number, SIM serial number and IMSI, handset phone number, among other things.

"When a SIM is inserted both iOS and Google Android send details to Apple/Google. iOS sends the MAC addresses of nearby devices, e.g. other handsets and the home gateway, to Apple together with their GPS location. Users have no opt out from this and currently there are few, if any, realistic options for preventing this data sharing," the report reads.

Source: https://in.news.yahoo.com/android-collects-20x-more-user-112117253.html