Vratislav Holub Today brought quite interesting information. A new study points out that the Android operating system collects 20x more user data than iOS. The story of a man who lost 22,6 million crowns due to Apple also surfaced.
Android collects 20x more user data than iOS
Compared to its competitors, the Cupertino company boasts that it places extreme emphasis on the privacy of its users in the case of its products. After all, this is partially confirmed by the various functions that Apple continuously implements, especially in the case of iPhones. A relatively widely discussed topic in recent months is the novelty of the iOS 14 system. Because of it, applications will have to ask users whether they can track them across applications and websites for the purposes of delivering personalized ads. But have you ever thought of comparing Android and iOS in the field of user data collection?
It could be interest you
Of course, it is clear that both platforms collect some user data, and it would be rather naive to think that Apple does not do this in any way. The mentioned question was also asked by Douglas Leith from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. He was working on a relatively simple study, where he observed how much data both systems send to their homeland. In this case, we encountered a rather strange finding. Google collects up to 20 times more data than Apple. Leith claims that when an Android phone is turned on, 1MB of data is sent to Google, compared to just 42KB for iOS. In an idle state, Android sends around 12 MB of data every 1 hours, and in iOS the number is again noticeably lower, namely 52 KB. This means that in the United States alone, Google collects 12 TB of data from active Android phones within 1,3 hours, while Apple boasts 5,8 GB.
Unfortunately, the objectivity of the study is slightly undermined by one discrepancy. For the purposes of research, Leith used an iPhone 8 with iOS 13.6.1 and a jailbreak and a Google Pixel 2 with Android 10 released last year. The problem is that for the analysis of the data sent in the case of an Apple phone, a device with an old system was used, which the majority of Apple users already not used for a long time.
Of course, Google also commented on the entire publication. According to him, the publication contains a number of errors, due to which the claim that Android collects significantly more user data than Apple is false. This giant allegedly tried his own research, when he came up with completely different values and does not recognize the work from Trinity College. However, he did not disclose what conclusion he reached. He added an interesting thought anyway. According to him, Leith only outlined the basic functioning of smartphones, which shares these procedures with, for example, modern cars. They also collect a lot of data about the condition of the vehicle and its safety, which the manufacturers then send in the form of statistics. Even Apple did not respond positively to the research, as it described its procedures as bad.
The user lost 22,6 million crowns due to Apple
The App Store is generally referred to as a safe place where we practically cannot encounter a fraudulent application or malware, which can be a threat, for example, with the competing Play Store. In any case, this claim has now been discredited by one user who lost an incredible amount of money due to Apple - 17,1 Bitcoins, i.e. approximately 22,6 million crowns. How did this actually happen and why is the Cupertino giant and its App Store to blame?
The user Phillipe Christodoulou, to whom this incident happened, wanted to check the status of his Bitcoin wallet in February, so he went to the App Store and downloaded the Trezor app. Trezor, by the way, is a hardware wallet company where Christodoulou kept his cryptocurrencies. He downloaded an app on the App Store that looked exactly like the original tool and made a huge mistake. It was a fraudulent program designed to faithfully copy the design of the real application. After entering his login information, his account was "poached." The victim now blames Apple for everything. This is because he checks all apps before they are published in the App Store in order to prevent such frauds. This is because the program first appeared as a tool for encrypting passwords, thanks to which Apple allowed it. But only then did the developer change its essence to a cryptocurrency wallet.
Apple has released the sixth developer beta versions of its operating systems
Earlier today, Apple released the sixth beta version of its operating systems iOS/iPadOS/tvOS 14.5, macOS 11.3 Big Sur and watchOS 7.4. Specifically, these betas bring fixes for various bugs. So if you have a developer profile, you can update your operating systems now.
