(MENAFN) A Quartz investigation discovered that smartphones with Android software are able to gather locations date and sent them to Google, even with the location service turned off, no apps being used and with no SIM card inserted.
A security expert and researcher said: "It seems quite intrusive for Google to be collecting such information that is only relevant to carrier networks when there are no SIM card or enabled services."
According to a Google spokesperson, since the beginning of this year, Android phones have been gathering the addresses of close cellular towers and sending the data to Google's system.
This makes Google able to access data of people's locations and movements, in spite of having their devices turned off or internet disconnected, which is breaching the users' privacy.
The spokesperson said the data was not stored or used, and assured phones won't send cellular tower location data to Google anymore.
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