Android hidden problems.
Google has a clumsy Android problem that has just been highlighted. The AI space race between Google and Samsung and between Android and iPhone has exposed long -standing problems that must be resolved, problems buried in the heart of Android.
Google continues to reduce the gap to the iPhone, with Android 15 and the next Android 16 providing safety and confidentiality upgrades. And although the owners of Samsung have endured a frustrating expectation for their upgrade, this is now imminent and it seems that Android 16 will be manipulated differently. But there is a clumsy black hole that remains, hidden monitoring which is impossible to stop. This is bad news for all Android users, but especially for users of Galaxy and Pixel buying handsets with “Confidentiality on integrated devices”.
The problem is the old against the new one. You will have noticed that the announcements of Google and Samsung AI stressed a treatment of confidentiality, when boasting new features. The last of Google scam detection “Protect your confidentiality by treating everything on device”, and even its new controversial photo analysis “is carried out on devices and all the images or specific results and warnings are private to the user.”
Samsung – Who pushed the hybrid AI before Google – goes further, “Galaxy’s approach to AI personalization”, he says, “from the launch of the first phone of Samsung AI to our continuous IA innovation on Disvise, is to never compromise on confidentiality.”
It’s the new one. But then we arrive at the old. As I pointed out earlier this month, a study published by Trinity College, Dublin Exhibited Google’s decision to follow Android phones via “cookies, identifiers and other data that Google stockers silently on Android handsets”, via default applications that are preinstalled. This happens despite the fact that there is “no consent requested to store any of this data and not withdraw”.
There is a legal dimension to this follow -up, which, according to the research team, was exposed for the first time in their report. This, they say, is an “alarm clock” so that the data regulators “begin to properly protect” Android phones.
Google replied on this legal point, saying to me: “The researcher recognizes in the report that they are not legally qualified, and we do not agree with their legal analysis. Users’ confidentiality is an absolute priority for Android and we are committed to complying with all applicable confidentiality laws and regulations. »»
But on the substance of the follow-up, the team of the Trinity says that it “informed Google of our conclusions and delayed the publication to allow them to answer. They gave a brief answer, declaring that they would not comment on the legal aspects (they were not invited to comment on them). They have not underlined any error or anomaly (what they were asked to comment on). Cookies, etc.
Google said to me: “This report identifies a number of Google technologies and tools that underlie the way we provide useful products and services to our users.” Nothing suggests that this disc to disc to be revised given these concerns.
When you add to that the delayed depreciation of cookies in Chrome and the equally controversial resurrection of the digital digital imprint, you are starting to see a pattern. Despite the accent on the treatment of AI on disk, the bases have not changed. This suggests that we can see a privacy in AI which is more marketing than linked to confidentiality.
This leaves Samsung in a strange land of limbo. It pushes to catch the iPhone, but it is linked to Android. And this means that this type of inherited monitoring problems has an impact on all its users. At the same time, it cannot precipitate safety fixes or upgrades of the operating system at the same rate as Pixel, because it does not control both its hardware and basic software.
It would be good to see an in -depth examination of the hidden monitoring which takes place without consent or to withdraw – this means “silent” Android follow -up and a digital digital imprint. It would be good to see the default options introduced in all areas. In the absence of this, each of these marketing messages on disk can require an asterisk.
