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Android Bandwidth Tax

2020-11-15 18:43:23.72758+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments

New lawsuit: Why do Android phones mysteriously exchange 260MB a month with Google via cellular data when they're not even in use?

To support the allegations, the plaintiff's counsel tested a new Samsung Galaxy S7 phone running Android, with a signed-in Google Account and default setting, and found that when left idle, without a Wi-Fi connection, the phone "sent and received 8.88 MB/day of data, with 94 per cent of those communications occurring between Google and the device."

The device, stationary, with all apps closed, transferred data to Google about 16 times an hour, or about 389 times in 24 hours. Assuming even half of that data is outgoing, Google would receive about 4.4MB per day or 130MB per month in this manner per device subject to the same test conditions.

The complaint:

An iPhone device (again, without the Android operating system or Google’s applications) in comparable active use communicated with Apple far less frequently than Android devices communicated with Google’s servers. (Id. at 24.) (The two devices did have a comparable number of contacts with Google’s advertising domains, as was expected in light of the similar usage on both devices of third party websites and apps which provide information to Google.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Invention and Design Consumerism and advertising Sports iPhone ]

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