Google is under investigation in Australia following claims that it collects data from millions of Android smartphones users, who unwittingly pay their telecom for gigabytes consumed during the harvesting, regulators said yesterday.
Responding to the latest privacy concerns surrounding Google, a spokesman for the US-based search engine operator said the company has users’ permission to collect their data.
The Australian investigations stem from allegations made by Oracle Corp in a report provided as part of an Australian review into the impact that Google, owned by Alphabet Inc, and Facebook Inc have on the advertising market.
Both the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and the nation’s Privacy Commissioner said they were reviewing the report’s findings.
“The ACCC met with Oracle and is considering information it has provided about Google services,” ACCC spokeswoman Geesche Jacobsen said. “We are exploring how much consumers know about the use of location data and are working closely with the Privacy Commissioner.”
Oracle, according to the Australian newspaper, said Alphabet receives detailed information about people’s Internet searches and user locations if they have a phone that runs Android — the mobile operating system developed by Google.
Transferring that information to Google means using up gigabytes of data that consumers have paid for under data packages purchased from telecoms, according to the Oracle report.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the content of the Oracle report.
Data privacy advocates said many consumers are unlikely to understand what they agreed to when signing up to use a smartphone.
Industry analysts estimate there are more than 10 million Android users in Australia.
“Some mobile plans may only include a few gigabytes of data, so if Google is harvesting a gigabyte of data, it is a very real cost to consumers,” Australian Privacy Foundation chairman David Vaile said.
Australian telecoms said they were seeking confirmation from Google on the allegations.
“We are aware of the reports in the media and we have asked Google to advise whether they are accurate,” said a spokesman for Australia’s biggest telecom, Telsta.
The investigations will raise more questions about the way big technology companies collect and use people’s data online.
Earlier this year, social media giant Facebook apologized after Web marketing firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of obtaining users’ data without permission for the 2016 election campaign of US President Donald Trump.
Oracle has its own long-running dispute with Google.
The US-based software company is seeking royalties for Google’s use of some of the Java language, while Google argues it should be able to use Java without paying a fee.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS