Beware: That Free Android App is Tracking Your Every Move


Susanne.Posel-Headline.News.Official- google.apps.tracking.adsense.eurecom_occupycorporatismSusanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | The US Independent
May 4, 2015

 

Researchers from Eurecom have looked into free Android apps only to discover that user data is being shared without their consent amongst an average 1,000 websites who profit from that information.

When Eurecom downloaded 2,000 free Android apps for study, the top 25 were monitoring user’s web traffic and connected to a shocking 250,000 URLs.

Beyond supporting ad networks, the data collected by these apps indicate that 9 out of 10 are advertising for Google’s Adsense.

And it does not stop there because these adware trackers are engaged with tracking websites that send information to other websites that send it to more tracking websites.

For example, one tracking app can disburse user data to 800 tracking sites which in-turn can send that information to another 810 tracking websites.

User tracking for Google is common place.

In 2014, Google Ventures (GV) announced they are investing in Renaissance Learning (RL) for $40 million.

RL is a cloud-based education platform for students K – 12, with “computer-adaptive technology” that is expected to speed up download times to make “teaching as effective as possible.”

Using RL, “teachers [can] keep students on track for college and career readiness” by monitoring how each student is advancing and give faculty the ability to direct student’s education to “learn the right skills, at the right time, in the right way.”

Perhaps this monitoring can lead to a choice by the user to avoid advertisements if they are willing to pay for it.

Last November, customers who signed up for Google Contributor (GC), they will see a “thank you” from the 10 websites participating in the experiment to determine how to best market to netizens.

The more the user pays, the less adverts they will see online.

Google has set up a waiting list for people to sign up for the service.

The participating sites include:

• Imgur
• The Onion
• Mashable
• Urban Dictionary

For as little as $1 to $3 a month, “the thank-you note appears in place of an ad that Google otherwise would have supplied.”

Advertisers paid out $141 billion in 2014 and are expected 15% increase in spending for 2015.

As far as watching users online, Google has been quietly painting a picture of your daily whereabouts and travel habits with the use of your Android or Apple smartphones.

With the use of tracking map apps such as Google Maps, Facebook and Foursquare, Google knows users must log into their Google account and immediately has a reference point to begin recording the adventures of millions of citizens all across the world.

Google has created Sounds of Street View (SSV) with a UK based hearing-aid corporation that will utilize “Google’s Street View programming interface, people and businesses will be able to place a sound as well as a location marker on the online map.”

One purpose for implementing this “immersive technology” is to lay the foundation for future corporations to have a new “promotional opportunity” and possibly create the next wave in deceptive marketing practices.

Stephen Griffin, developer for SSV explained: “There’s also potential for businesses, tour operators and such to think about how they communicate their brand/service when they get their own Street View internal tours. Sound adds a whole new atmospheric element to somewhere like, say, a restaurant, where you could have a welcoming message at the door, an ambient atmosphere to get potential clientele to gain a more thorough vibe.”





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