Google reportedly monitored data from rival Android services to build new apps

guest · Jul 26, 2020

Google reportedly monitored data from rival Android services to build new apps
"Android Lockbox" may be the company's way to spy on its rivals
July 25, 2020
https://www.techspot.com/news/86130...itored-data-rival-android-services-build.html

Naturally, the company has access to general usage information from Android devices that it uses to guide the development of various features and measure the impact of any changes made to the overall experience. However, a new report from The Information reveals that Google may collect more data than you'd imagine through an internal program, and not necessarily for the right reasons.

The program -- dubbed "Android Lockbox" -- allows the company to gather information on non-Google apps and people's usage patterns for those apps.
The report claims there's a dedicated team called "Magic Eye" that analyzes the data and uses it to brief executives on how much engagement third-party services receive, potentially informing decisions about acquisitions or developing rival services under the Google umbrella.
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Sources told The Information that this data has been used to monitor rivals to Google's services such as YouTube and Gmail, as well as fast-growing mobile apps like TikTok.

YouTube recently rolled out an experimental feature in India called Shorts, which is designed to sway people away from TikTok. It would be interesting to know what made Google decide it was not worth developing into a separate app.
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The company further noted that this is done through the public Android App Usage Data API, which means other developers have the same level of access to relevant information about app usage -- provided that the user allowed this during the initial Android setup or in Settings > Google > More > Usage & Diagnostics.
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guest · Aug 9, 2020

Android user chucks potential $10bn+ sueball at Google over 'spying', 'harvesting data'... this time to build supposed rival to TikTok called 'Shorts'
These are the class-action-suit-joining 'droids lawyers are looking for
August 7, 2020
https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/07/android_users_chuck_sueball_at/

Google "abuses Android OS to obtain a competitive advantage", according to a lawsuit filed this week alleging that the Alphabet offshoot "secretively monitored and collected users' sensitive personal data" to develop apps to compete with TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.

The putative class-action suit, filed on Wednesday in the Northern district of California [PDF] also alleged that Google was gathering info from TikTok specifically in order to "unfairly compete against TikTok [with a] competing video platform app called 'Shorts'."
This week's sueball cited a recent report alleging the existence of an internal programme dubbed "Android Lockbox", which it said was the source of "behind the scenes technical insight" into non-Google apps.

For example, Google is able to collect data on when and how often an Android smartphone user opens and runs non-Google apps and the amount of time spent in non-Google apps."
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The suit also claims that it is not "disclosed that Google actually monitors, collects, and uses sensitive personal data when Android users use non-Google apps."
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