When you say “Google”, 9 out of 10 people think of “searching the web”. The other guy thinks of mass surveillance. Seed-funded by the NSA and CIA, Google was merely the first among a plethora of private sector start-ups co-opted by US intelligence to retain ‘information superiority.’
But you don’t have to think just about the search engine, and all the wonderful, life-saving services they offer us, for “free”. They also have a phone in millions of people’s pockets. So how much information is Google getting from those phones?
FSM EXCLUSIVE DEAL
Fox News ( ha! ) conducted a test to find out. They took two identical phones, with no SIM cards, no cellular and no WiFi. With one of them in Airplane Mode ( NOTE: no mention of GPS and/or location tracking being disabled – however the test was suppose to show that the device is tracking you even when it’s brand new and unused ).
The reporter then travelled across the city with the phones in his pocket. When he arrived back at the office, he connected both phones to a man in the middle device so he can get a copy of whatever is being sent to Google.
The phone that wasn’t in Airplane Mode sent 300 kilobytes of data to Google. Including 121 locations, 130 activities and 152 barometric readings. The one in Airplane Mode logged even more more locations and activities than the other phone.